By Martha F Bishai | Director
With a little help from one’s friends, sometimes necessity really can be the mother of invention. Back in May, you and others among our generous GlobalGiving donors answered a call from The Umkhumbane Schools Project to help us establish a way of keeping our maths learners connected and learning even during the COVID-19 shutdown. We knew that this would be a challenge, given that our learners lack access to the laptops, WiFi, and quiet study spaces required to make online learning successful.
Not only were we able to create a new online learning hub for our learners to access on their cell-phones during the lockdown, but our “WAO!” WhatsApp learning program has continued to grow even as schools South Africa have reopened. Today we have active WAO! mathematics support and real-time classes happening each week for approximately 80 learners in Grades 10-12. We have hired three new tutors to help us handle our learner enrolment and are planning to maintain this program as an ongoing feature of our educational programming into the future, regardless of whether schools are open or closed. And we have been able to provide mobile data to our learners so they can attend the “classroom” times on their phones, without depleting whatever amount their families are able to allocate for mobile data.
When asked whether this program has helped them, our students are responding with a resounding “Yes!” Many of the learners have said that upon returning to school they have found that the teacher is introducing topics already covered in the WAO! program while schools were closed. They are feeling prepared, competent, and confident thanks to our WhatsApp lessons. In short, during a time when these young people have lost significant ground in their schooling careers, the USP’s WAO! program has at least kept them connected and engaged, thereby narrowing the gap in learning that the pandemic has imposed.
Thank you so very much for your generous support for this microproject on GlobalGiving. We look forward to keeping you updated as we keep the maths scholars of Umkhumbane connected and learning through your generous support for Empowering South African Youth Through Education, our primary GlobalGiving project.
Together, we will continue turning challenge into opportunity!
With sincere gratitude,
Martha
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