The new self-learning materials

MASERU – How do you get learning to proceed during an unprecedented pandemic when the entire school system has been shut down and students are not coming to school?

That was the big question that UNICEF had to deal with when Covid-19 struck in 2020, paralysing the entire education sector.

“We are not used to an education sector that delivers learning in any other way. We need teachers to come to school and learners to also come to school.

That was the challenge,” says Umasree Polepeddi, the Chief Basic Education, Adolescent Development at UNICEF in Lesotho.

“That meant we had to think differently,” she says.

Would the solution lie in radio or television programmes or online learning? That did not seem feasible given the issues of network reception and the hassle of preparing radio lessons.

“To ensure continuity of learning, we looked around at what the country had in terms of building blocks. We were looking at whether the country had any kind of radio programmes which we could use to get learning across to children.

“We looked at television programmes and we also looked at connectivity in terms of mobile phones,” she says.

Eventually, UNICEF opted on creating self-learning materials working in conjunction with the Ministry of Education and Training.

“We thought they would be the best, where some guardians or parents would easily look at them and guide their children through what they had to learn,” she says.

She says they came up with learning materials in printed form that were based on the school curriculum “but was much simpler”.

She says they also needed to send a message to “convince parents and everybody that it is safe to come back”.

“A whole plan was worked out on how to communicate that schools were safe and that they can come back,” she says.

“It was a whole provisioning of masks for teachers and children so that no child would not come to school because they did not have a mask.”

She says UNICEF donated masks to the Ministry of Education and Training and installed hand-washing stations at about 740 schools around Lesotho to ensure that “hygiene measures were in place”.

“At every primary school we had a minimum of at least one teacher who understood what needed to be done on issues of distancing, washing of hands and maintaining hygiene.”

“We worked with the ministry to make sure that all the masks were supplied to children and teachers. We supplied the hand hygiene material like hand sanitisers. We also installed 740 hand washing stations because hand-washing was one of the critical elements,” she says.

While Covid-19 had a devastating impact on learning, Polepeddi says they as UNICEF, were able to pick important lessons during the pandemic.

One of the biggest lessons is that learning does not have to necessarily happen in a classroom setting.

“The biggest lesson is that we don’t have to learn in a four-wall classroom,” she says. “We can learn while using lower-end solutions, high technology solutions and self-learning packs. All of these can come together and show us that this is the way to go.”

The pandemic, she says, gave them an opportunity “to re-imagine how learning should be in the 21st century”.

She says there were some radio lessons that were aired and learner packs which were delivered to some schools in Mohale’s Hoek and Quthing which were very useful at that time.

“It did help, at least we could give them something to use when schools were closed. Even when the schools were re-opened, they still found them useful as something that supported their textbooks.”

“As UNICEF we are working with the Ministry of Education and Training to come up with a comprehensive learning strategy to broaden how learning should happen.”

Staff Reporter