and secondary literature, the analysis identifies three phases: a missionary-led pioneering phase that established

educational infrastructure; a post-independence formalization that integrated mission schools into the national

system via grant-aid arrangements; and a contemporary period defined by fiscal strain, adaptive financing, and

renewed policy negotiation (Kelly, 1999; Luebke & Kanyanga, 2021). Documentary evidence demonstrates that

institutional flexibility, diversified funding strategies, and sustained administrative capacity within the Church

enabled the partnership to expand and sustain access despite recurring economic and policy shocks (Patrinos,

Barrera-Osorio, & Guáqueta, 2009; O'Connor, 2016). The study refines Public-Private Partnership (PPP) theory

by showing how path dependency and institutional adaptation operate together to produce durable public–

nonstate collaborations, and it offers practical lessons for countries seeking scalable, resilient models for mass

education (Adamson & Taylor, 2018).

early schools, seeding the infrastructure of modern national systems (Hastings, 1994; Sundkler & Steed, 2000).

In Northern Rhodesia, Catholic missions were among the first to deliver formal schooling, combining religious

instruction with literacy and vocational training long before significant colonial public provision (Snelson, 1974;

Hambulo, 2016).

This article traces the 135-year partnership between the Catholic Church and the Zambian state (1890–2025) to

explain how an originally missionary-driven enterprise became an enduring, integrated partner in national

schooling. It addresses a gap by offering a continuous, archival-based account that spans colonial rule, post-

independence nation-building, and neoliberal restructuring (Carmody, 2009). The argument foregrounds two

interacting processes: historical path dependency, which shaped feasible policy choices after independence, and

institutional adaptation, through which Church and state renegotiated governance, finance, and curricular

Africa, shaping teacher formation, curricular priorities, and local governance practices that persisted after

independence (Berman, 1975; Hastings, 1994; Snelson, 1974). Path dependency explains why post-

independence governments frequently inherited and reproduced mission-era institutional arrangements rather

than building wholly new systems: early investments created durable expectations about schooling provision

and administrative forms (Adamson & Taylor, 2018).

A common hybrid solution was the grant-aid model, where the state assumed recurrent costs - principally teacher

salaries - while religious bodies retained ownership and administrative control (Kelly, 1999; Carmody, 2009).

Scholarship on Zambia documents how legal instruments and budgetary routines embedded mission schools

within the national system, creating formalized interdependence that shaped expansion strategies and

(O'Connor, 2016).

This article synthesises the path-dependency literature with a theory of institutional adaptation. It argues that

durable PPPs emerge from historical constraints that are repeatedly renegotiated. That such PPPs are repeatedly

renegotiated through adaptive governance and finance practices (Robertson & Mundy, 2018; Adamson &

Taylor, 2018).

This study employs a qualitative historical case-study design to produce a richly contextualized, process-oriented

account of the long-term partnership between the Catholic Church and the Government of the Republic of

Zambia (Yin, 2018). The methodological choices reflect the study’s two primary aims: to trace institutional

Secretariat (annual reports, Episcopal letters, school registers, correspondence); government holdings at the

National Archives of Zambia (policy circulars, budget ledgers, inspection reports, and legislative texts such as

the Education Act of 1966 and 2011); and contemporaneous published sources (missionary periodicals,

1994; Snelson, 1974).

Ecclesiastical archival selections were purposive: sites with early and continuous Catholic presence were chosen

districts, agricultural hinterlands, remote mission zones) provided contrast for cross-case inference within the

single-case design. Governmental records were sampled to cover central policy pronouncements and district-

level implementation documents to capture the vertical interplay between policy formulation and practice.

Sampling prioritized documents directly relevant to the partnership’s operational mechanics: agreements and

The study balanced breadth and depth by combining macro-level policy materials with detailed institutional

records from exemplar dioceses. This mixed archival sampling allowed the analysis to move between high-level

policy shifts and the granular administrative practices through which those policies were operationalized.

All consulted documents were catalogued using a consistent metadata schema recording repository, collection,

file reference, document date, document type, and a brief content summary. Documents were read iteratively:

an initial descriptive pass captured provenance and gist, a focused coding pass identified material relevant to

pre-defined analytical categories (funding and finance; governance and administrative control; curriculum and

pedagogy; access and equity; adaptive innovations), and integrative readings traced causal processes across time

(Creswell & Creswell, 2017).

Lincoln, 2017).

To mitigate confirmatory bias, the team instituted periodic blind-coding checks in which a coder applied codes

to a small set of documents without access to prior code assignments; resulting divergences were analysed,

discussed, and used to refine the codebook and analytic memos. Analytical memos were written throughout to

capture interpretive moves, record contradictions, and document the evidentiary basis for claims.

Triangulation was applied as a procedural principle across all analytical phases. For empirical claims about

timing, funding levels, or administrative practices, the study sought convergence across at least two independent

documentary series (for example, a ministry circular corroborated by Catholic Secratariat payroll ledgers) or a

primary document corroborated by a contemporaneous published source (statistical yearbook or missionary

official policy texts were prioritized as primary anchors; correspondence and committee minutes were used to

Causal inference relied on process-tracing logic to connect policy decisions to administrative practices and

downstream outcomes. The study reconstructs sequences of events - policy issuance, budgetary allocation,

Catholic Secretariat implementation measures, and observable institutional responses - to identify plausible

mechanisms linking institutional design to observed outcomes (Yin, 2018). Mechanism claims are presented

with graded confidence, linked explicitly to the strength of the documentary chain; where direct quantitative

corroboration was unavailable, the analysis framed conclusions as mechanism-based explanations rather than

definitive counterfactual causal claims.

The research adhered to archive access protocols and anonymized sensitive personal data encountered in school

registers and personnel files. Reflexively, the study recognizes that archival survival biases the record toward

intermittently, leaving capital investment and many operating costs to the Church and local communities

through diocesan education committees and mission-appointed headteachers (Snelson, 1974). Colonial

inspection regimes increasingly interfaced with mission administration, requiring conformity to teacher

qualification standards and inspection protocols while leaving local governance largely in Church hands

(Hastings, 1994).

knowledge and vernacular instruction in formal classroom settings (Snelson, 1974).

nationalized curriculum (Robertson & Mundy, 2018).

resources, thereby reproducing or deepening inequalities (Luebke & Kanyanga, 2021).

Keeping the aforementioned in view, it can be stated that this detailed and evidence-anchored mapping of

financing, governance, curriculum, access, and innovation across time provides the empirical basis for the

theoretical claims advanced in the Discussion section of the article and for the policy implications drawn in the

Conclusion section of the article.

This case shows that two interacting processes, path dependency and institutional adaptation, best explain the

partnership’s long-term durability and changing form. Path dependency captures how missionary institutional

scripts (school ownership, teacher-training institutions, and bookkeeping practices) constrained the range of

networks (Berman, 1975). Malawi’s parish-based finance sustained rural enrolment in ways that parallel

accountability dynamics (Luebke & Kanyanga, 2021). Uganda’s history of episodic nationalization followed by

partial reinstatement of faith-based administration produced different trade-offs between autonomy and

standardization. These contrasts suggest that legal frameworks (grant-aid versus nationalization), timing of fiscal

autonomy or become more tightly integrated into the state apparatus (Patrinos et al., 2009; O'Connor, 2016).

cost-sharing and fee exemptions, highlighting unresolved questions about who bears financial risk and under

what conditions (Patrinos et al., 2009). Secularization and curricular standardization narrowed overtly

confessional instruction in the classroom while preserving space for religious activities in non-core times; this

negotiated arrangement preserved provider identity but aligned pedagogical content with national standards

(Robertson & Mundy, 2018; O'Connor, 2016).

Several rival accounts merit attention. One argues that mission expansion was primarily geographic - missions

simply filled unserved areas - rather than institutional strength. While spatial presence matters, archival evidence

capacity, and the timing of secularizing reforms; these conditions shape whether partnerships produce resilience

with equity or resilience that masks widening disparities (Adamson & Taylor, 2018).

Methodological constraints temper the strength of some inferences. Archival survival is uneven across dioceses

and decades, privileging institutional voices and formal administrative perspectives over community-level

experiences (Denzin & Lincoln, 2017). Quantitative outcome measures for earlier periods are sparse, limiting

the direct linkage of financing changes to learning outcomes. The single-case design targets mechanism

identification rather than statistical generalizability; comparative and mixed-methods follow-ups are necessary

to test external validity (Yin, 2018; Adamson & Taylor, 2018). Reflexively, applying path-dependency and

adaptation lenses foregrounds continuity and negotiated resilience; future work should explicitly seek

subordinate voices through oral histories and village-level records to capture contestation and lived experience.

adaptive financing exacerbates inequalities (Kelly, 1999; Hambulo & Higgs, 2019).

Research priorities include comparative testing of the mechanisms across different legal regimes and fiscal

that recovers subordinate perspectives on inclusion and pedagogy. These steps will clarify how historically

rooted partnerships can be designed to combine resilience with equity in diverse Global South contexts

(Adamson & Taylor, 2018; Luebke & Kanyanga, 2021).

This study demonstrates that the educational partnership between the Catholic Church and the Government of

country’s mass schooling trajectory from the colonial era to the present. Empirical reconstruction across three

partnership persisted because historical institutional forms established by missions created feasible policy

options for the state and because both actors repeatedly renegotiated governance, finance, and curricular

boundaries to respond to changing political and fiscal conditions.

The case advances two linked theoretical claims. First, path dependency matters: missionary investments in

property, teacher training, and administrative routines produced durable scripts that structured post-

independence policy choices and constrained the range of feasible reforms. Second, on institutional adaptation

matters, the partnership endured not through static complementarity alone but through iterative negotiations and

practical innovations. diversified financing, routinised consultative mechanisms, and negotiated curricular

Second, invest in and preserve provider administrative capacities, teacher training institutions, financial

management systems, and local governance structures, because these capacities are the mechanisms through

which nonstate partners deliver scale and continuity. Third, embed equity safeguards and monitoring provisions

in grant-aid contracts to ensure that access gains do not entrench or reproduce gendered, linguistic, or socio-

economic disparities. operationalizing these lessons requires legal clarity, predictable financing modalities, and

institutionalized dialogue platforms that can mediate crises.

The findings are bound by methodological constraints that moderate claims about causality and generalisability.

The archival record privileges institutional voices and administrative perspectives, limiting direct access to

community-level experiences and everyday contestation. Systematic outcome data for early decades are sparse,