The Blue DOT Issue 13

OPINION
feeding programs was cut off. Children were now at home most of
the time and, sadly, reports of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse
started to come through. The significant constraints associated
with the pandemic vitiated the social safety nets designed to
provide succor for the vulnerable segments of society, especially the
children.
With the disruption to schooling, compensatory programs
were developed. However, access to these programs
was impeded for some children, due to lack of internet
service or power or because parents were not adequately
informed. Being at home for some children meant spending
more time working in the fields or carrying out household chores.
Reading, writing, and doing math fell by the wayside as needs such
as access to food became more pressing. Children living in urban
areas had some advantages over their rural peers. While children in
most urban areas had access to online learning solutions, children
in rural areas had only limited access to some form of learning due
to the lack of online technologies. In recognition of this challenge,
various organizations, with the support of UNESCO and UNICEF,
began providing lessons via the radio. The true efficacy of such
programs will only be known in coming evaluations.
Reimagining Learning
While shying away from overgeneralization about a continent as
vast and varied as the African one, the challenges faced in Africa
as outlined above provide an opportunity to reimagine education.
Does being in a physical classroom represent learning
for children? Should a teacher be standing in front of the
class to be recognized as a teacher? How can we draw
on indigenous ways of knowing in order to reimagine
education? What were the community teaching and
learning systems that existed before and how can they
be adapted to suit the needs of the student today? What
are the other available ways to teach young children? Does rote
learning still serve a purpose in the world today? It is time
to reimagine education in the context of providing opportunities for
exploration and active, meaningful learning.
As an avid appreciative inquiry practitioner, I wonder if these
questions are being taken back to the families and communities
by local and international development partners. How can
communities be involved in this process of reimagining? How
do they see the child of today being an active and contributing
member of their community years down the line? What are the
community needs that education can lay the groundwork for
addressing by future generations? Can a child access technologies
to follow the weather and changing climatic conditions in their
community? Can she access pricing information from the grain and
vegetable markets? Students should be technologically proficient,
able to use the internet for learning that is relevant to their lives.
Yet access to the internet is still problematic, and so it is also
important to explore other ways of learning that do not rely on
a live internet connection. It is time to strongly consider and
implement offline learning solutions.
Offline Learning systems
Offline learning can provide children living in resourcestressed
communities access to digital educational
content that can be made available to users without the
need for frequent external interaction. Children without
access to a classroom or an active internet connection would still
be able to learn through text-based or storage play back learning
solutions. This means packaging learning activities and loading
them onto solar-powered tablets that will be used by children and
community members, with support from teachers. With such tools,
parents and caregivers in resource-constrained environments are
able to support their children’s learning, using tablets that give them
the ability to walk through the learning content.
Offline learning can provide children living
in resource stressed communities access
to digital educational content that can be
made available to users without the need for
frequent external interaction.
REFERENCES
1. https://au.int/en/documents/20200724/africas-governanceresponse-covid-19
2. https://au.int/en/newsevents/20201016/african-union-aucovid19-response-fund-launch-300m-fundraising-help-tackle
The content itself can be developed using the curriculum as set
by the ministry of education in any particular country. Teachers
can visit the villages to check on students’ progress and spend time
mentoring and coaching as needed. Remote and hard-to-reach
communities can access educational content on the learning tablets.
The frequency with which members of the community may need to
travel to access educational resources can be minimised.
As these offline technologies are deployed, we must be sensitive to
the possibility that users may never have interacted with computer
technology. Providers must think through ways to provide training
and enhance the capacity of tutors to be able to support learners
using these digital learning technologies. The immediate benefit
will be an improvement in digital literacy within communities,
which then will have potential spinoff benefits such as greater
access to education, health care information, and financial services.
While digital literacy has been linked primarily to active internet,
educators, governments, and development partners need to explore
technologies that don’t require constant internet connectivity. Only
then can we ensure that unconnected populations in developing
countries have access to learning and vital information.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented opportunities to consider
education as it once was and imagine what it can be in the future.
It is possible that the traditional classroom-based instruction will
be insufficient for our needs, and remote-based offline technologies
will become more and more relevant. This is an opportune
time for reimagining education together with the children
and their communities so that the new ways of learning
are inclusive and embrace the daily realities faced by
children. Equally important is to find sustainable ways to increase
access to these technologies for communities living in hard-to-reach
areas. Moving ahead, countries in the Global South should explore
strategies that bridge the digital divide that exists between urban
and rural communities in accessing the internet and other offline
learning technologies.
3. voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/nigerians-justify-massive-lootingcovid-19-supplies
4. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse
OPINION
ISSUE • 13
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