The Impact of Climate Change on Quality Education Delivery: A Case Study of Four Selected Secondary Schools in Kabwe District, Zambia

The study was an attempt to establish the impact of climate change on quality education delivery in selected four secondary schools in Kabwe district of central province in Zambia. Two objectives were at the heart of the study, namely: to establish effects of climate change commonly experienced in Kabwe district and to investigate how such effects affect provision of quality education in the selected four secondary schools within the district. 128 participants comprising 40 teachers, 80 pupils and 8 school administrators were purposively selected from four different secondary schools in Kabwe district. A survey using structured interviews and questionnaires were used. On challenges associated with effects of climate change commonly experienced in Kabwe district, the study established the following: impassable access roads to schools due to floods, destruction of homes, school buildings, obliteration of field crops and livestock due to heavy rains and droughts, and escalation of diseases and stress. On how the afore mentioned challenges affect quality education delivery, the study established the following: high absenteeism rate among pupils, deprivation of pupils with quality physical learning environment, increased hunger and reduced attention span in pupils, and compromised health of pupils. The study has proposed the following interventions: upscale tree planting programs, parents-teachers associations in concerned schools to aggressively lobby local authorities to maintain strategic roads in townships and residential areas leading to schools, to continue promoting use of eco-friendly practices such as conservation farming, strict control of both forest and charcoal burning, ban open air trash burning.