Abstract:
The study was conducted in a slum in Lusaka, Zambia between October 2009 and January 2010, where 29 % of children are expected to be OVC (Ministry of Education 2007). While negative consequences of their orphanhood for education and impact of HIV-AIDS on their schools, psychological distress of OVC are most frequent in discussion. This study attempted to listen to marginalised OVC’s positive views on education and their future in the Zambian context investigate their perceptions to education and future. Target OVC were reached primarily via an ethnographic qualitative method of interviews, focus group discussions and participatory observations. An open-ended questionnaire survey was also distributed to conducted on 117 Grade 7 students of the six community based schools. The questionnaire aimed at obtaining information about students’ perceptions to education, their views to school situation and their vision to the future in relation to improving their community. The study findings were analysed based on the relationship between children’s freedom of choice and communal oriented culture, followed by the impact of children’s voices. Capability Approach in the context of Zambia. The results show that the OVC prefer a community school to a government basic school for learning as community schools are reasonable and accessible. In spite of constraints they face everyday, each pupil has his/her own dream to become teacher, doctor, nurse, driver, and so on. Most children expressed that they were keen on proceeding to secondary school, and were interested in contributing serving to improve the situation of the slum Compound with their acquired skills at some future point. Moreover, some of them mentioned they came to school not only to learn school subjects but also to meet friends. Some students stated they were proud of mutual cooperation observed in the compound. While the Capability Approach discussed much of individual well-being, in the communal based society like Zambia, development of human values such as respect, morality, cooperation and solidarity are significant elements to be acquired in Zambia. As the research concentrating on children’s voices was conducted for the first time in a slum in Zambia, the research itself would have played a role in making teachers realise the significance of being a listener to students.