With all learning institutions prematurely closed on 20 March 2020 and all citizens advised to self-isolate in a bid to control the spread of COVID-19, it was hypothesized that COVID-19 would negatively impact on the performance of students in the 2020 Grade 12 national examinations vis-à-vis mathematics, science and design and technology subjects. An observed steady increase in the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases and the low levels of technology use in secondary schools in Zambia due to limited technology resources signifies a very difficult period in a young country which has just rolled out a nationwide implementation of STEM education, This study collected data from three teachers at a public secondary school in Chipata District of Eastern Province in the Republic of Zambia. The Head of Department for Mathematics, the Head of Natural Sciences Department and one science teacher were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews via mobile phone were used to collect views of what these specialists thought would be the COVID-19 effects on the general performance of students in their subject areas. Results of this study revealed that there is likely to be a drop in the pass percentage of secondary school students in this year's national examinations if the COVID-19 epidemic is not contained in the shortest possible time considering that the school academic calendar was abruptly disturbed by the early untimely closure of all schools in the country.

The emergence of coronavirus and its rapid spread across Asia, Europe, United States of America and parts of Africa led to many republics implementing partial and complete lockdowns of their countries as part of the many solutions to curbing the pandemic. Internal measures included closure of all learning institutions and restricted mobility of citizens. Zambia responded by closure of schools and institutions of higher learning, and a partial lockdown. As an alternative to on-campus learning, some higher learning institutions in Zambia introduced E-learning for their students. This was not the case for primary and secondary schools until mid-Aprils 2020 when educational responses started being implemented. This paper highlights the E-learning and smart revision facility, a virtual classroom for Zambian primary and secondary schools.

Background: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a serious global health problem that has negatively impacted the mental health of students.Methods: We conducted an online descriptive cross-sectional study among 273 undergraduate pharmacy students at the University of Zambia from August to September 2020. A partial proportional odds regression model was used to determine the predictors of anxiety. All statistical tests were set at 95% confidence level (p<0.05).Results: A response rate of 70% was obtained with the majority of the students being female 51.6%. Of the 273 respondents, 23.8% did not experience anxiety, 34.4% experienced mild anxiety, 24.9% experienced moderate anxiety while 16.9% experienced severe anxiety about COVID-19. It was also found that 61.2% of students reported that their attention to mental health increased during the COVID-19 pandemic whereas 44.3% reported an increased resting time with a significant reduction in relaxation 51.3% and physical activity 45.4% time. Factors that affected mental health included; reduced family care (OR: 2.27; 95% CI: 1.09-4.74), not changing attention to mental health (OR: 0.33; 95% CI: 0.18-0.62), being in the final year of study (OR: 0.33; 95% CI: 0.13-0.84), reduced time of resting (OR: 2.10; 95% CI: 1.26-3.50) and feeling helpless (OR: 0.42; 95% CI:0.23-0.75).Conclusions: COVID-19 negatively impacted the mental health and physical activity of pharmacy students at the University of Zambia. This can have negative health and academic outcomes for students going forward. Higher learning institutions and key stakeholders should implement measures to aid students to recover from the impact of COVID-19 on their mental health and physical activity.

Pre-service teachers' beliefs, attitudes, and values about mathematics have a significant influence on their self-concept about mathematics as a subject and determine how confident they are to teach it. The purpose of this study was to examine Zambian pre-service secondary mathematics teachers' pedagogical content knowledge self-concept about the function concept in relation to their knowledge of content and students. Data was collected from 150 pre-service teachers using a sequential approach in two phases. The first, quantitative phase, involved 150 pre-service teachers who responded to a functions survey and a mathematical pedagogical content knowledge survey. The second, qualitative phase, involved two pre-service teachers who were purposively selected from phase one to respond to vignettes and interviews for an in-depth understanding of their knowledge. Results of the study revealed that pre-service teachers' level of their pedagogical content knowledge self-concept was low. They would not be confident enough to teach the function concept in secondary school. Results further revealed that their knowledge of content and students was weak. A weak correlative relationship between pre-service teachers' KMLS and KM was revealed whereas a moderate correlative relationship of their KL and KC was revealed. It was further revealed that there was no significant correlative relationship between KTS and their knowledge of the function concept Thus, pre-service teachers needed to improve before leaving university for them to effectively teach secondary school concepts.

The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service teachers' knowledge of content and students vis-à-vis their ability to anticipate, identify and clear high school students' misconceptions about inverse and composite functions. To accomplish this goal a case study research design was used to examine one fourth year mathematics education pre-service teacher from one of Zambia's public universities. A case study strategy was preferred for this study because it enables the researcher to focus and have an in-depth investigation of an individual subject in a natural setting. As a data collection tool, the study used a questionnaire containing 7 vignettes comprising 4 inverse function vignettes and 3 composite function vignettes. Data were analyzed based on Ebert's framework for characterizing the level of proficiency of functions and graphs. Findings revealed that the pre-service teacher's level of proficiency of identifying and clearing students' misconceptions was mostly good. Results suggest that vignettes might be useful in mathematical pedagogical courses in teacher education.