A Look Back at 2021 and an Outlook on 2022

January 2022

For the first time in its history, Mackenzie Community School (MCS) was able to offer a full primary education track in 2021: 24 students successfully completed the newly introduced grade 7 in December 2021! In this context we are especially excited that our students at Mackenzie Community School in Ndola, the third-largest city in Zambia, ranked #1 of all local community schools in the annual grade 7 examinations! And also when compared to public schools, our student's performance compares excellently.

Our dedicated and exemplary local team, which since January 2021 now consists of 8 teachers, managed and mastered different challenges resulting from COVID19 in an outstanding way and kept the school going. Due to pandemic-related travel restrictions, none of the iChange board members has been able to visit Zambia for a while now and necessary preparational steps for the introduction of grade 7 had to be done remotely. Yet, thanks to the efforts of all our local team members, grade 7 was introduced successfully and the school's operations were further professionalized. An additional milestone was that a large part of the ongoing operating expenses of the school by now are covered locally.

The high level of local commitment and professional leadership of the school were also being noticed elsewhere: a local donor family decided to support the expansion of Mackenzie Community School by funding two additional classrooms. One room will soon serve as a school library, with the other one being slated to become the first-ever computer lab at Mackenzie Community School.

For 2022, our main wish is that it will be possible again for a member of our board to visit Ndola to continue necessary medium- and long-term strategic discussions with the local team. Further infrastructure investments will be necessary to meet the growing interest within the community for quality primary education and to meet regulatory standards. At the current moment Mackenzie Community School serves 321 students from Mackenzie itself, as well as the surrounding economically challenged areas.

In addition, as is often the case, a change in government last year can lead to uncertainty with regards to educational policy objectives and regulations. Relationships with the various ministries and authorities have to be rebuild or enhanced. In addition, we expect a continued impact on school operations related to COVID19 in 2022.

However, thanks to the highly committed local team of teachers and our generous sponsors, we are not only optimistic about the coming year but the future of Mackenzie Community School in general! We want to express our deep and sincere thanks to all of you who have contributed to the wonderful developments of the past year!