The Covid-19 crisis has had a huge impact on all sectors of society, and education has been no exception. One of the first measures implemented was the closure of all educational institutions, thus interrupting the learning of more than one billion students worldwide. According to UNESCO, 91% of the world’s students (1.5 billion students) were unable to attend school or university because of the measures taken by countries to stop the spread of the virus.
The suspension of in-person learning has posed great challenges for all countries. For Africa, it has been one of the biggest challenges in terms of connectivity and accessibility. Unfortunately, the pandemic continues to wreak havoc, with over 20,000 cases and more than 1,000 deaths on this continent. Several countries have worked and continue to work to enable students to continue studying from their homes. What has been Africa’s educational response? In this article we analyse the challenge posed by the process of distance learning on the African continent.
Over the past few weeks, African governments and major educational institutions have put in place a number of measures to promote the continued process of learning from home. However, there are still several challenges to be addressed.
EGYPT
In Egypt, schools closed on 15 March, at which time the Ministry of Education and Technical Education (MoETE) announced the first steps to implement distance learning. On 19 March, it was announced that the country had signed a contract with Edmodo, the e-learning provider, to implement remote learning. Among the initiatives, mobile phone operators offer SIM cards free of charge to students with smartphones.
Among the measures, MoETE provided all students with access to the Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB). A platform with content distributed by levels and subjects, from pre-school to secondary. Multimedia resources are supplied in both English and Arabic, aimed at students, parents and teachers. Accessible through any device. MoETE advises parents to ensure that their children complete the curriculum posted on this website.
Some 22 million students in nearly 55,000 schools have access to a direct communication channel with teachers. The platform provides students with a code to access online classes with their respective teachers. Students aged 3 to 7 will not undergo any assessments. The rest of the students can be assessed through this platform. Egyptian students abroad can also make use of the materials shared in this digital library.
KENYA
Since 23 March, Kenya has provided four platforms offering educational resources to help continue with the academic content scheduled for each school year. Firstly, in partnership with the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), daily educational radio programmes are broadcast on multiple channels such as Radio Taifa, Iftini FM, etc. Secondly, educational TV programmes have been broadcast on channels such as Edu Channel TV, owned by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD). The schedules are published on their web pages. Thirdly, all programmes are also shared on EduTV Kenya’s YouTube channel. And finally, all learning materials and resources have been uploaded to the Kenya Education Cloud, which, in collaboration with the Kenya Publishers Association, has made electronic copies of the textbooks available to all students free of charge.
Another of the proposed initiatives has been improve households’ Internet access. With this aim, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), in collaboration with Alphabet Inc and Telkom Kenya, deployed Google Loon balloons. This is a network of helium balloons located in the stratosphere, at an altitude of around 20 km, beaming 4G connectivity to rural regions. A single balloon provides connectivity to an area of 80 km in diameter.
Several private institutions have encouraged distance learning. Safaricom, a mobile network operator which, together with Eneza Education (an initiative previously analysed by the Observatory), Longhorn publishers and Viusasa, offered students free access to all those digital educational resources. Students can access up to 250 MB of educational content free of charge for 60 days through educational tools such as Shupavu Web (Eneza Education), Viusasa e-learning (available in English and Kiswahili) and the Longhorn e-learning platform through the Safaricom network.
LIBERIA
Like the other countries, Liberia commenced its drive to promote distance learning in March, specifically on the 27th. When all schools were closed, Orange Liberia offered free access to all online educational resources, for teachers, students and families, by means of the Orange Campus Africa website. The participants and content providers of this platform include Khan Academy, Wikibooks, Wiktionary and Wikipedia. They offer resources for all ages.
MADAGASCAR
Madagascar decided to support distance learning by broadcasting educational programmes over traditional media such as radio and television.
With the support of UNICEF, children in years 1 and 2 receive Malagasy lessons on the radio. All radio programmes are shared through WeTransfer, so that they are available to both teachers and families.
The educational content broadcast on television consists of Mathematics lessons in French aimed at primary school students. The Ministry of National Education and Technical and Vocational Education hired staff to increase the production of educational content.
All the educational content broadcast has also been made available for consultation on the YouTube channel of Radio Television Analamanga (RTA).
MOROCCO
After declaring a state of emergency on 18 March, Morocco closed schools and established that all learning would take place remotely. The government made available to primary, secondary and high school students a repository of educational content in Arabic and French to support their learning process at home. For university students, a MOOC platform was made available with resources provided by various of the country’s universities.
Another initiative was to broadcast lessons through the national channel 4, aimed mainly at those who do not have electronic devices.
NIGERIA
In order to provide a coordinated educational response to the crisis posed by the pandemic, the Federal Ministry of Education and the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in Nigeria set up a Task Team. Its main purpose is to guide, inform and provide resources to support students in the 36 states of Nigeria, so that they can continue their learning from home. This team has its own dedicated section on the FME website. Its role is to provide real-time learning resources, offering continuous support to distance learners.
The Task Team established a three-level procedure based on three possible scenarios:
- Scenario 1: Schools closures lasting one month.
- Scenario 2: School closures lasting one to three months.
- Scenario 3: School closures lasting more than three months.
On this basis, a programme called “Learning at Home” was developed. Integrated into the platform and continuously updated, it reflects the state of implementation of distance learning, the resources made available to students in order to promote fairness during this process of teaching and learning.
This programme also includes advice on the channels that can be used by states, the systems and tools available to follow up and monitor the resources and development of student learning, etc. The FME and UBEC, in collaboration with state governments, aim to provide educational resources appropriate to the context of students, teachers and schools, within the framework of remote learning. These resources include assignments, reading material, digital content, as well as all the content broadcast on radio and television.
RWANDA
In Rwanda, the Education Board (REB) took steps to support students through distance learning. The initiative began on 4 April with the broadcasting of educational radio programmes. These were daily broadcasts with a duration of six hours. The broadcast began with literacy lessons for primary school pupils on Radio Rwanda.
Another of the REB’s initiatives involved an agreement with local telecommunications companies such as MTN Rwanda and Airtel to exempt from Internet charges all students who use their electronic devices to access educational content.
In order to help pupils, keep up with their learning process from home, the REB renewed its online learning platforms. Shared educational resources are divided into three categories:
- The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) e-learning platform provides materials to students to help them prepare for exams.
- In addition, an agreement was reached with the Mobile Classroom app for all educational resources and content to be shared with students at no cost, during the lockdown period.
- And finally, an agreement with School Gate enabled all primary school students to access all shared courses free of charge.
Several platforms are available to students and teachers. This applies not only to primary education, but also to tertiary and vocational education. These tools are communication channels that allow students to contact their respective teachers directly. The website offers course content through lessons, digital textbooks and activities to be worked on from home and can subsequently be assessed by teachers through these platforms.
These materials have also been shared through a new YouTube channel called REB Learning, with the content requested by students. It currently offers lessons in English, Science, Mathematics, etc.
SOUTH AFRICA
In South Africa, the Department of Basic Education made digital resources available to students to support learning at home during lockdown.
In addition, several African publishers and digital content providers have offered their materials free of charge in an effort to ensure that children continue to learn and read during this unprecedented period. Among the initiatives, we highlight:
- Telkom ZA, which has provided free Internet access for students using educational platforms.
- Worldreader’s BookSmart for home reading solution allows students and families to access and download books offline through a library using their smartphones so that they can continue their learning while schools are closed.
- African Storybook offers open access to picture books in selected national languages. Free applications are also available for reading and making storybooks.
- The Vula Bula series, developed by the Molteno Institute, also has its own platform to promote the learning of African languages during this period. This is the first graded reading programme in African languages where progression from level to level is based on the phonics of each language.
SOUTH SUDAN
South Sudan is another African country that has worked to foster distance learning. The Ministry of General Education and Instruction, in collaboration with Girls Education South Sudan (GESS) and the rest of its partners, joined forces to ensure that students could continue to learn despite school closures. They developed a programme for teachers, education experts and students. Their work consisted of using radio as it is one of the most widely used media in the country, bearing in mind that South Sudan does not have the infrastructure and connectivity to extend online learning to all students. Text messaging has also been used as a medium, in a bid to find different learning approaches to help teachers maintain and develop learning continuity.
TUNISIA
On 12 March, the Tunis-based Arab League Education, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (ALESCO) launched an e-learning proposal aimed at ensuring continuity of learning and teaching during the pandemic. ALECSO’s website presented a freely accessible repository of educational content in Arabic, aimed at teachers and students. A total of ten North African and 12 Arab countries benefit from this initiative.
Numerous initiatives were aimed at ensuring continuity in the learning process for young people affected by the closure of schools due to the Covid-19 crisis. Notably, there has been a clear effort to bridge the digital gap. These range from the use of traditional communication channels such as radio and television, through the solidarity of telecommunications companies facilitating access to 3G networks, to more disruptive ideas such as the deployment of Google’s Loon technology.
For more information, see the website:
Are you involved in any initiative that aims to ensure learning continuity during the global Covid-19 crisis? Share your initiative HERE!
