Carolin Kebekus, a German comedian, actress and singer, visited a GPE-supported teacher training college and primary school in Monze district in Zambia on Tuesday.

Ms. Kebekus engaged with a group of female teacher trainees and primary school students who were thrilled to meet with her.

“Without a quality education I wouldn’t be who I am today. In poor countries, education is the only way to escape poverty,” she said.

Monze Primary School and the Charles Lwanga College of Education, located 200 kilometer southwest of the capital Lusaka, receive GPE funding through the Zambian government to improve teacher training, learning materials, data collection and student assessments. Since 2009, Zambia has received almost US$100 million in GPE grants.

Zambia has made significant progress in strengthening its education system, but many challenges remain. One of the problems is overcrowded classrooms with an average of 60 students per teacher in primary school.

“It is shocking”, Kebekus said. "Although the school is teaching in three shifts each day to deal with the lack of classrooms and teachers, the classes are still overcrowded.”

Kebekus was part of a larger trip organized by ONE Germany to promote the campaign “Poverty is Sexist”, which advocates for girls’ education.

ONE, an outspoken advocacy organization fighting against poverty, is a GPE partner and supports GPE’s replenishment 2020, which requests US$3.1 billion in donor funding for 2018 to 2020 to continue its support to countries like Zambia.