By Takura Zhangazha*
In recent conversations about the impact of Covid 19 on rural
livelihoods with relatives and friends from my rural home in Bikita, we touched
upon the important subject of education.
The particular subject matter was, as is the conversational norm, initially
approached from a generalized angle.
With the familiar subject being the safety and health of the children as
the main reason why schools must remain closed. Or issues of how the difficult
payments of school fees from communal farming incomes was now appearing to have
been in vain. With some schools still insisting
on payments for school fees despite the uncertainty of when the teaching
calendar will possibly resume.
The conversations became slightly more organic when it
shifted to that most difficult of subjects called home-schooling. As caused by
Covid 19’s impact. In this there was an
evident difference between how it is being done in urban and rural areas. In
the urban areas it was explained that there are online learning platforms that are
being explored by parents and schools such as live online teaching or in poorer
residential areas, Whatsapp platforms for home schooling. Or that schools were examining and utilizing the
option of emailing lessons/modules for parents to try and teach their own
children from home at scheduled intervals.
In the rural communities however the idea of home-schooling
the children at either primary or secondary education levels is almost
practically non-existent. For a number
of reasons outlined in conversations with colleagues based there. The most obvious being the fact that the
teacher and regular teaching materials cannot be availed to the parents due to
the lack of mediums with which to do so.
These mediums being threefold; electricity, internet/data accessories (computers/smart
phones) and/or television sets. The only
medium much more widely available would be the radio receiver which again
requires electric power either directly or in the form of battery or solar
power. I will come back to the radio a little later on. Suffice to say the online home education
option is one that technically is not available to a majority of rural parents,
teachers or students. Or even the schools themselves as they cannot integrate
it into new teaching strategies due to the fact that parents cannot access them.
A second element pointing to differences between urban and
rural homeschooling was what one parent advised was a lack of their own
capacity to teach. In rural areas most
parents and grandparents who are permanently based there have not have had much
formal education. And in most cases are
unable to grasp concepts that they would be assumed to teach their own children
even at primary education level. While this is a characteristic common to both
urban and rural households, it is more pronounced in the latter. So
even if rural schools were mandated to come up with user friendly printed
manuals for home-schooling, the parent/guardian may not be in a position to
enable it.
As a third observation, it was interesting to hear what the
children who had initially been somewhat happy about what they thought would be
a temporarily extended holiday had to say.
From the conversations it was fairly apparent that there is a desire to
go back to school. Not just for
educational purposes but to also occupy time with friends and other extra
curriculum activities. Especially because there is no access to television or smart
mobile telephony connected to the internet.
Even their parents recognize the boredom of necessary chores (cattle
herding, fetching water etc) for their children but it would still appear that
there would, for the moment, be no other options.
A fourth observation is the telling psychological impact on
rural based parents of this closure of schools and the (temporary perhaps)
uncertainty of the future of their children.
By way of general analysis, education in rural areas is/was seen as a
means through which parents can give their children a chance of escaping rural
poverty for what remains mythical urban employment and therefore success. So tilling the land, keeping livestock all in
order to raise the necessary school fees to see the child through the required
levels of education is an aspirational priority for the rural parent. It gives one a sense of purpose and drive to
work hard even under tenuous rural circumstances. Where it is disrupted as is the case with
Covid 19, these dreams are dealt a heavy psycho-social blow. This is also the case in the urban but the
context and available options as outlined above differ significantly.
While I am certainly no expert on education policy, I would still
hazard suggesting a couple of way forwards on the emerging challenges in rural
education. As alluded to earlier, radio
is the most ubiquitous medium of access to information in our rural areas. It
is therefore the primary medium through which rural homeschooling must be
undertaken. The Zimbabwean government
through the ministry of education in collaboration with the state broadcaster Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) must urgently set up a national educational
radio station on frequency modulation (POTRAZ and BAZ have the FM frequencies) in
the short term. And this national radio station
can interchange broadcast lessons for various primary and secondary education levels
per week and publicise these to schools and parents as is pragmatic.
In the medium term there is a need for a radio receiver roll
out programme to poorer rural households as identified by school authorities and
parent’s associations. This would also include the attendant power accessories
such as storage batteries or solar panels.
In the long term the role of community radio will be
important for home schooling. Work on licensing and capacity building of these
to respond to not only Covid 19 but also embrace new ways of learning for rural
and urban children is key.
All of this with an understanding that where we seek to
mitigate the challenges posed by the Covid19 pandemic in Zimbabwe, the rural is not a distant hinterland. It is an integrated national space that requires,
as anywhere else, urgent national attention.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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