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thought SPACE opinion
FOR THE CLASS OF 2020, the year was unlike any other.
National and regional lockdowns forced millions of learners and students out of the classroom, and into their homes where learning happened remotely if at all. Events they’d been looking forward to (winter sports season, matric dance, last day of school) and events they’d been dreading (a double history lesson after second break) were erased from the school timetable as the reality hit home of life in a global pandemic.
The impact was harder
on some than on others.
A landmark report published in September 2020 by EdTech Hub
and eLearning Africa surveyed 1 649 educators and ICT professional
across 52 African
countries. When asked which learners would be most educationally disadvantaged by Covid, 44% pointed to those from rural communities; 28% to low-income communities; and 8% to those with special educational needs. Some 12% simply shrugged and said everybody would be equally affected.
The crisis in education
is a particularly nasty
side effect of the latest coronavirus, and its lingering impact will be felt for years to come. The class
of 2020, after all, will make up a large percentage of the workforce in 2025.
In May of the same year, Old Mutual came together to think about how it could influence the post-Covid ‘new normal’ and leave a lasting legacy.
‘The feedback from employees was unanimous: focus on education,’ says Old Mutual Limited CEO Iain Williamson. ‘As a result, we launched an ambitious project to create Africa’s biggest digital classroom, harnessing technology to bring learners, teachers, entrepreneurs and all other interested stakeholders together to create a platform of shared learning and shared value to
create a valuable resource for the continent.’
The EdTech Hub/ eLearning Africa survey also asked respondents to predict the most significant long-term educational effect of the Covid-19 pandemic in their country. The difference between
the ones who said it would damage education systems (19%) and the ones who said it would bring new opportunities (15%) wasn’t at all vast.
The experts we spoke
to had similar reactions. Craig Paxton runs Axium Education based in the rural village of Zithulele
in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. Vivian Onano
works with learners and educators in Kenya. Fergus Sampson works at Curro,
a group of private schools that enjoyed a relatively seamless transition to digital learning. Nic Spaull is an education researcher at Stellenbosch University. All four have their concerns about what has happened in education. All four remain optimistic about the future.
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