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The quality and effectiveness of an education system depends heavily on the quality of its teachers. They are the key persons in determining the success in meeting the education systems goals. The education and wellbeing of school children depends heavily on the competence, commitment and resourcefulness of teachers (Mwanza, 2016). The quality of teachers depends on the training which they undergo. Training and professional development therefore, underpin what a teacher can accomplish in a school. The quality of teachers therefore is determined by the teacher education regiment experience that a prospective teacher goes through (Luangala and Mulenga, 2015). According to Zientek (2007) teacher quality is the responsibility of teacher education. Therefore, the teaching and learning of teacher education students is critical in building teacher candidates’ capacity to improve learners’ output. Teacher educators need to be knowledgeable and ready to take over the responsibility of training teachers. It is therefore important to note that the goal of teacher education programme is to produce effective teachers. This can lead to effective teaching and learning in schools. Abstract: The issue of literacy in Zambia has been a subject of concern due to the continued low literacy levels among Zambian pupils. Literacy should be the main focus if any improvement in the education system is to be done. Therefore, the focus of literacy education is to improve the reading and writing skills of learners which should begin with teacher preparation. The literacy and language lecturer, who is equally an important factor in explaining the quality of teacher training and teacher graduates who eventually go to teach literacy in primary schools has been ignored in the literacy research agenda. The purpose of this study was to establish whether Literacy and Language lecturers were adequately prepared to train teachers in literacy and language education in selected primary colleges of education in Zambia. The objectives of the study were to establish the preparedness of college lecturers to train teachers in literacy and language education and identify challenges which lecturers face in preparing teachers in literacy and language education. The study employed a mixed method convergent parallel design which involved both qualitative and quantitative methods. A purposive sampling technique was used to come up with 49 respondents, that is, 45 college lecturers and four college administrators while simple random sampling was used to select colleges of education where data was collected. Data was collected through questionnaires and interviews. Qualitative data collected through interviews was organized guided by research questions. Quantitative data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 to generate descriptive statistical information in form of frequencies as well as percentages. The study found that while all lecturers were professionally trained either as primary school teachers or secondary school teachers, they were not fully prepared to train teachers in literacy and language education. This was due to the failure to interpret the teacher education programme, the teacher education curriculum not being totally in line with the school curriculum in most areas of literacy and language education and failure by the ministry of general education to update college lecturers on the latest developments in the primary school curriculum and shortage of lecturers were among the challenges. The study recommended that college lecturers need to be inducted and mentored upon appointment in order to prepare them to train teachers, College curriculum should always be updated in line with the school curriculum in order for colleges of education to prepare students effectively, and there is need to engage literacy and language lectures in the formulation and /or revision of literacy policies.

Teacher Educators’ Preparedness to Train Teachers of Literacy in Selected Primary Colleges of Education in Zambia