George Secondary School

George Secondary School is the first PEAS school in Zambia, and has been launched in partnership with Build It International.
Twapia, Zambia
Students (March 2012): 204, Director: Gershom Simwanza

Since opening, George Secondary School has now admitted 204 students, over half of whom are girls. Almost double that number is on waiting lists to enter the school. This demonstrates the huge need in Zambia for affordable quality secondary education and our need for rapid further expansion.

Secondary education in Zambia is very inaccessible. Government and private secondary schools are expensive, and affordable schools set up by communities are only for primary students. Twapia is a town with a population of 20,422 people, but previously didn’t have a single High School. The area was cited by the DEBS and the PEO as an area in great need and parents have even petitioned to change one of the primary schools into a High School.
 

A School Committee has been formed with representatives from PEAS, local businesses, the school and village government as well as a member elected by the community. It helped lobby the local government to grade the access road to the school and organizing a local school bus. The local community have also organized a ‘community watch’ rota to support the school guard in protecting chickens which will provide a vital source of income for the school.

You can see more photos of the progress at George Secondary on Built IT's facebook page