Zambia: Taonga's Journey Back to School

19-year-old Taonga Sakala lives in a peri-urban area of Lusaka, on the fringes of  Zambia’s capital city. She left school at 14 when her mother died and, during the years that followed, had no stable income, no home of her own, and no route back into education. By 2024, when she joined the Digital School Project, she had been out of school for five years.  

Today, after her re-introduction to education, she views her future with renewed confidence and dreams of becoming a pharmacist.  

Barriers, one after another 

Taonga was in Grade 9 when her mother died. Her mother had been everything: provider, home, the reason school was possible. Overnight, all that disappeared. There was no money, no stable place to live. For nearly two years, Taonga moved between friends’ homes, getting by day to day. 

“Life was hard. I was moving from one friend’s place to the next to eat.” 

She married in 2023, hoping it would bring her stability but unfortunately her marriage didn’t offer her the financial breathing room to return to school. With two small children in tow, the household income was stretched thin. Even if she could have afforded school fees, there was no route back in, no programme designed for someone in her position. 

The moment that changed everything 

In 2024, a friend told her about the Digital School Project — a free, flexible programme using tablets and local learning centres, designed for out-of-school young people like Taonga. No fees. No need to travel far. Curriculum-aligned, with trained facilitators and a clear pathway to national examinations. 

Taonga registered immediately. 

“I felt good … I knew that my life would change, and all my dreams would come true.” 

For the first time, the barrier was not money, not distance, not the absence of a programme built for her. The door was wide open, and what she did with it was up to her. 

How she made it work 

Returning to learning required Taonga to build a new routine in conditions that did not make it easy. She organised childcare with her brother to free up time for sessions. She set aside two hours each day to study. She studied again at night. 

“I would set aside two hours to study … and study at night before sleeping.” 

There was resistance at home from her husband, adding one more obstacle layered on top of the rest. But she kept going, and within the programme, she found an environment that met her where she was. Facilitators followed up when learners were absent and created a classroom that felt genuinely encouraging. Friends in the programme also pushed her to continue during moments of doubt. 

“My friends encouraged me: ‘just keep going, at least go to school so you can have something to do.’” 

Learning that actually reaches her 

Like many learners in Zambia, Taonga had previously progressed through the school system without fully acquiring the foundational literacy and numeracy skills each grade assumed. Passing from one year to the next is not the same as mastering what was taught and those gaps, often invisible in a crowded classroom, tend to compound over time. 

The Digital School Project is built to find and address exactly that. Each learner has their own tablet for extended periods, and the platform tracks their progress individually. Facilitators can check which questions they answer correctly, where they struggle, how they move through the material. They can review this data and assign targeted exercises to address specific gaps, making the learning genuinely tailored rather than one-size-fits-all. Something Taonga’s previous schooling had never offered her. No system had looked closely enough at where she actually was. 

Progress, and what comes next 

With that foundation properly rebuilt, Taonga sat for the national Grade 7 examination, a recognised re-entry pathway into formal education. She passed. 

“I was confident that I would pass. I just had faith,” she says. 

She has developed strong engagement with English, Mathematics, and Science; the subjects that will carry her toward the career she has always had in mind. 

“This programme helped me go back to school so that I can do what I want. All my dreams — I will achieve them.” 

Learn more about the Digital School Project.