Two leeds teachers are giving up their jobs to set up a school in Africa.

Karolyn Simbeye, an RE teacher at Morley High, and her husband Martin, a maths teacher at Pudsey Priesthorpe High, hope to have a school open in Zambia by January 2012.

The couple are already stockpiling books and equipment in their cellar, which will be shipped over to Africa.

They intend to import English teaching methods and theories and hope to have enough funds to sponsor students from poor families to attend the school in the town of Kapiri Mposhi.

But those who attend the Vinjeru School will receive more than just an academic education. The couple’s website says their hope “is that while having increased opportunities in life here and now, the students will also come to know God for themselves and thus be prepared for eternity”.

Karolyn, the daughter of an evangelical preacher from Stevenage, told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “I never thought I would want to move to Africa, but Martin and I really wanted our marriage to have a common purpose, and there’s such a need for affordable, highquality education in Martin’s native Zambia.” WS.