Mulenga community school, Zambia - Mary Mwape (right) and her friend Gertrude Mabenga. Photo: A. Bungeroth

Zambia is a country on the brink. One in five people are infected with HIV, life expectancy has dropped to 33 and those aged 20-25 actually have less education than their parents’ generation.

Improving education has therefore become a priority for the Zambian government – yet ironically, in order to qualify for long-delayed debt relief, Zambia has been forced to stop hiring the teachers it desperately needs.

In 2002 Zambia scrapped tuition fees, a move which halved the number of children not at school. This achievement is especially important because schools are crucial in halting the spread of AIDS. In a country where 40 per cent of rural women are illiterate, improving education of the disease among this group could save countless lives.

Twalabuka community school, Zambia - young girl writing on the blackboard. Photo: A. Bungeroth

Despite this, Zambia has around 9,000 teacher vacancies unfilled, and around 9,000 newly qualified teachers unemployed. This farce has come about because the IMF says that the government cannot afford to hire the teachers it has trained.

International donors have denied Zambia access to full debt relief, and refused to provide support for the overloaded health and education systems. The government has been forced to implement a wage and hiring freeze that has led to strikes and drained public backing for reform programmes.

Teachers Edith Chilembo (right) and Susan Mwanasakapaya, Mulenga community school, Zambia. Photo: A. Bungeroth

In 2004, Zambia handed over a whopping $377 million (over 7 per cent of its GDP) in debt repayments - $247 million of which went straight to the IMF. As such, the Zambian government spent $25 million more last year on debt repayments than it did on education.

This vicious circle has brought Zambia to its knees, since it cannot hire teachers as it struggles to meet unrealistic targets to access debt relief. Yet accessing that relief would enable it to pay teachers and meet the targets.

The impacts on poor people are immediate and severe. With so few teachers, Zambian schools face the unenviable choice of illegally turning children away, or trying to work with as many as 100 pupils per class.