June 9, 2020

Quote of the week “A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.” -  Malcolm X

Country Updates

Kenya: The thematic groups (equity and inclusion, learner centered teaching, and values and life skills) are working on their learning plans for the next two years with an aim of fostering joint learning as per their areas of interest.

On May 26, RELI members met to deliberate on the call for concepts by Education – out – Loud . Three themes of interest were identified; parental engagement and empowerment, marginalized communities and equity in the Competency Based Curriculum, and monitoring of the education budget. The three sub-groups spent the week developing their concept narratives with the aim of having them ready by June 12, 2020. For peer support, weekly check-in calls will be held every Tuesday.

Uganda: The team conducted a survey among member organizations on interventions addressing learning limitations prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Preliminary findings show that the majority of organisations are directly or indirectly fostering continuity of learning at home through diverse methods ranging from advocacy, partnerships with the Ministry of Education and Sports ( MoES), increased public health awareness, multimedia approaches enhancing distance learning through SMS, Radio, TV, internet broadcast, sharing of learning resources and delivery of self-study printed material primarily targeting rural communities where media accessibility and connectivity is challenging including pastoralist and refugee spaces. RELI supports the MoES, local government, teachers, parents, and learners in ensuring continuity of learning. Similarly, the need to promote the nurturing of life skills especially for youth and understanding of the teachers’ well-being was emphasized.

Tanzania: During the implementation of the Social Accountability Monitoring (SAM) project in satellite schools within Ifakara township, the SAM committee, and partner organisations identified shortage of infrastructures including classes and teachers houses. They engaged local leaders and District officials who committed to initiate construction of classes and teachers houses in the satellite schools to address challenges associated with long distances to school especially to students from lower classes. The local government allocated Tzs. 25,000,000 for the construction of one teacher's house in which the community members also are required to make contribution of material and labour. It also plans to allocate 22,000,000 for construction of two classes which will require community contribution.

What we're reading this week: 10 immediate WASH in schools (WinS) actions - for school heads to manage the response to covid-19 Are our children learning? - the status of remote learning among school going children in Kenya during the covid 19 crisis Forget critics, education is still key to success by Benta Abuya Insights from Kenya: how to keep children from poorer homes in school by Benta Abuya Long Term Impact of a Global Crisis on Children Left Behind by Deborah Kimathi The impact of COVID-19 on Africa's higher education system by Mawazo Institute Psychological health and life skills during COVID 19 (swahili version) by Sr. Grace Mkosamali Digital learning management systems Ways to boost Immunity Nugget-Stronger against Covid-19 by Minet.

Join the conversation on Twitter by following @ReliAfrica and using the hashtags #RELIAfrica #RELILearning to keep the conversation going. A social media toolkit is available here . Are you a member of the RELI online platform? Click here for more details.