Safi Rasul
Head Teacher
Ragem Early Childhood Development Centre
The COVID-19 pandemic brought uncertainty, anxiety and tension as the numbers kept raising. With schools closed, most parents started to wonder what would become of their children and some of us teachers our careers. As days turned into weeks and weeks rolled into months, home learning guidelines for primary and secondary schools were issued but Early Childhood Development Centres kept waiting.
“With the COVID impasse not abating, the district received a number of partners who thought to support the education needs of the children during the school closures but all of them had programmes concentrating on primary and upper classes. This left the ECD section unattended” Ronald Drani Senior Education Officer Arua Municipality
All children of ECD going age were home, and most parents lacked the appropriate knowledge and skills to support them to continue learning. This meant the children were idle with only time to play with peers but the play was also unsupervised. The Aga Khan Foundations COVID-19 response intervention to support ECD through the Madrasa Programme was such a great opportunity and not only came in handy but very timely as well.
The intervention provided us with learning packages which we distributed to parents to support children continue learning. To ensure the children were being supported, our teachers were facilitated with Airtime to conduct follow up on all the parents who received the packages and this enabled us identify challenges the parents were facing and provide timely solutions.
The intervention also featured radio lessons and talk shows these provided an opportunity for the children to learn more concepts beyond those in the packages and enabled parents/guardians to learn skills on how to effectively support continued learning. The benefits of the intervention have spanned beyond just the children’s continued learning, even our teachers have greatly benefited. With school closure, it meant teachers were temporarily out of employment however with the COVID-19 response intervention, teachers were contracted to support in preparing the home learning packages and scripts for the weekly radio lessons.
One of the key successes we have noticed is with one of our students Asante. Asante had challenges with language and his father Mr Jackson Mande lacked the knowledge and skills to support his son to continue learning. However, when the family received the packages coupled with the schools follow up calls, Asante was able to complete his assignments as well as learn new things even with schools closed.
For us as Ragem community, the ECD home learning packages stood out, parents are yearning for more and other parents in the community are using the packages to get copies for their children as well. The support we received has created a significant change not just in the community of Ragem but the municipality as a whole.
As a community and municipality, the intervention renewed our hope. It was our light at the end of the dark tunnel. We are grateful to Madrasa Early Childhood programme and the Aga Khan Foundation for the support because was timely and has created changes as well as filled the learning gap during the school closures.
Other Voices from Arua.
“The situation was hard, most of our parents lacked the knowledge on how to support their young children to continue learning however the intervention has equipped them with knowledge, skills and materials to support the children’s continued learning.” Ronald Drani Senior Education Officer
“The packages were so helpful to us, my child is now able to form words, we are grateful for the support because children were only playing since the schools were closed.” Mauzo, Parent
“We are grateful for the home learning support especially the packages which we gave out to 72 parents. Before the Aga Khan Foundation came in to support, we were stranded on what do to support children, the school didn’t have any resources to develop and print home learning packages but when AKF came with 200 packages, there was a sigh of relief.” Onama Primo Head Teacher Sacred Heart Nursery School
“I have encouraged the siblings to support Shamsa because I can’t read and write however, I have been able to tune for her the radio lesson especially on Arua one on Saturdays. This has been so helpful”. Zakia, Parent
“The radio lessons and talk shows provided a great opportunity for us the people of Arua to support our children in Nursery to continue learning during the school closures.” Ronald Drani
“I have listened to more than 7 lessons and I actively call in to give feedback to lessons, my son has continued to learn a lot from the radio lessons we listen to every Saturday on Arua one.” Dramadi Abdul Noor, Parent
The benefits of the intervention have spanned beyond just the children’s continued learning, even our teachers have greatly benefited. With school closure, it meant teachers were temporarily out of employment however with the COVID-19 response intervention, teachers were contracted to support in preparing the home learning packages and scripts for the weekly radio lessons.
“Before the start of the intervention, my situation was dire, schools were closed, I was stranded and didn’t have money to venture into business. However, when the opportunity came to support in preparing the home learning packages and scripts for the radio lessons, it was a great honour for me to be part of. I have used my experience and skills learnt to support my community through preparing packages and delivering lessons on the radio.” Oriku Damazu Caregiver Scared Hearts Nursery School.