Brian Kazungu, 30/12/2020

The outbreak of the Corona virus (Covid-19) brought with it many changes to the way how things are done globally and one of the new normal has been the adoption of technology in remotely doing tasks that were traditionally done on company premises.

People can now do their work related tasks from the comfort of their homes and yet still achieve the same or better results as the Forth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has capacitated the workforce to either work from home or on the move in delivering services to their targeted clients.

One other area which has also quickly adopted technology in response to the Covid-19 pandemic is the educational sector.

Instead of the traditional classroom, lessons or lectures can now be conducted online at the convenience of both teachers and students while maintaining safe social distance according to the Corona virus related health guidelines.

One such great techno-related school management system and educational platform for conducting lessons online is eduSYMS, where individuals, corporates and the academia can offer lessons to their targeted students with the help of effective and user friendly information technology tools.

As people adopt technology in delivering education related services, it is also critical to find out what is it that a student must look for before engaging an online teacher on a certain course or subject?

Are there certain specific attributes that you look for in an individual before you accept them as your teacher or it’s only the content/syllabus that matters?

In getting to such a shared understanding of an informed and mutually beneficial engagement between teachers and their students, questions may arise as to who is a teacher and what is a teacher as shown in the conversation between Mutumwa Mawere and Goodman Musariri.

[12/29, 8:31 PM] Goodman Musariri: Who is the TEACHER?

What is a Teacher? Do we have a common understanding that you are the teacher? What is a teacher?

[12/29, 8:53 PM] mdmawere1: To me s teacher is a student who chooses to learn before sharing his or her temporary monopoly of knowledge on specific matters forming the chosen subject matter of a class.

However, in this matter, no one can claim any knowledge that is superior but when minds meet on a problem, perspectives and paradigms can follow without any pre-qualification or script.

[12/29, 8:56 PM] Goodman Musariri: Mr. Mutumwa Mawere do you agree or acknowledge that all your zeal, knowledge, skills, versatility, dexterity, ingenuity etc. were offset by ‘cunning’ political leaders?

The SMM matter is testimony of how political leaders are able to make a great entrepreneur a FUGITIVE.

It will take another greater political leader like President Goodman Tamuona Musariri 2023-2033 to give you back SMM and to restore your standing.

SMM issue just like Makamba’s issues during Mugabe era, is at the mercy of a future president or Political Will.

Invest in a future President and better politics from 2023-2033 and get: Restitution, Reparations, Indemnity, Compensation and Restoration for the opportunity costs incurred against the SMM saga.

[12/29, 9:00 PM] Goodman Musariri: Let’s agree that the colonial and post-colonial education we received and continue to receive remains somewhat IRRELEVANT.

Professors and Doctors of Smith’s regime are as good as people who can’t read and write because they read irrelevant information.

Imagine a group like – What is a Leader? , taking too long to agree that political leaders lead Economic Leaders, Social leaders and Technological Leaders???

[12/29, 9:19 PM] mdmawere1: Why do you wish to volunteer sharing on matters that may fall outside your personal knowledge?

I respond as follows just to provoke others to think of being part of a learning community.

1. I cannot agree or acknowledge a nullity. Common sense, logic and reason compel any rational mind to know better that no cunning political actor would survive the scrutiny and vigilance of active citizens.

Accepting that an agent of the people can be cunning and get away with the alleged mischief suffers the burden of the author acknowledging his dereliction of civic duty to speak truth to power.

How can one seek to glorify the implied abuse of public power yet aspire to gloss over the recognized abuse in the misplaced premise that public power is so seductive as to be an end in the quest for a better life?

2. You state as fact that: “The SMM matter is testimony of his political leaders are able to make a great entrepreneur a fugitive.” One need not remind you again that no public office bearer can claim any legitimacy absent the consent and perhaps acquiescence of the people in whose name a government is instituted.

You will have known by now that before claiming to act on behalf of another’s lived experiences, is always safe to ask.

For your information, I last received mail in Zimbabwe in 1988.

Arithmetic literacy would tell you that a person who voluntarily exited from Zimbabwe some 32 years ago can hardly qualify to be labelled a FUGITUVE.

Please don’t allow your political ambitions, if this is the incentive that informs your invented or augmented reality to undermine common sense, logic and reason.

I am not a fugitive and have never been.

History is your story and refraining from substituting your reality should be the humanly thing to do.

You proceed to conclude that my choice to share experiences and insights is motivated by a self-help agenda and in so doing interpose your great mind on facts that fall outside your personal knowledge.

This is not an act of good and exemplary citizenship.

You will no doubt appreciate that civics has duties associated to its rights. There should be no free citizenship because any abuse of public power has a real cost.

No President should be above the law yet the import of your thinking is that there is nothing wrong in celebrating ideas and ideals that offend constitutional morality.

I would have thought by now through your association with me, you would have known and appreciated that ILLITERACY could be one of the biggest challenge in play.

I trust that you will desist using SMM as a reference until you have submitted to the limitations imposed on you to use hearsay as a substitute for evidence.

I shudder to think what would follow if you became a President of living humans without respecting facts as they were created by other humans and reserving your reflections on your own lived reality.

I contend that the educational system in Africa is ripe with reforms, both in terms of the physical infrastructure by means of which educational content is delivered and in terms of how education is in theory and in spoken form.

The main reason for the urgent need for educational reform in Africa is that the continent has millions of young, ambitious and potential learners who are facing monumental barriers to achieving basic education.

The United Nations (UN) has estimated that Africa has a very ‘youthful population’, with over 200 million people currently living on the continent aged between 18 and 34.

As the UN highlights in this study, this immense number of youthful population could be a source of great opportunity. With the right educational footing, these are the doctors, scientists, writers and engineers of the future and of their generation.

However, the UN notes, the continent’s youthful population growth into contributing to the economic growth in their respective countries has stagnated due to lack of jobs and educational opportunities. The report indicates that there’s pressure suppressed to this youthful number by their families. Most, especially young women have had to abandon their educational goals in order to feed or care for family members.

The domino effect is that such cases lead to acute dangers in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where huge swathes of youths join rebel groups for lack of leadership and career related opportunities which have proven to motivate young minds to study or take up a different way of life.

Another challenge in the current African education structure is the lack of high quality transport infrastructure where in most parts of the country learners are not able to reach schools within a reasonable timeline. Though Africa is home to some of the world’s top universities for instance the University of Cape Town in South Africa and the University of Nairobi in Kenya. Elsewhere, in some part of the continent such as in Niger, there is only one university to cater to thousands if not millions of would be students.

Even in one of the wealthiest countries such as South Africa, schools have been deemed to be lacking the necessary infrastructure to implement the nation’s admirable educational policies. The situation is worse in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in rural and/or desert areas where children and young people practically have no means of reaching a school in order to participate in conventional classroom teaching on a regular basis.

On the flipside, Africa is a continent which is highly internet literate. It often surprises my readers when they learn that even in the poorest parts of Africa, 70% of citizens own a mobile phone and that in general, communities in Sub-Sahara Africa are more likely to have an internet connection than to have adequate supplies of food and water.

In addition, young Africans are particularly engaged and entrepreneurial when it comes to developing and downloading smartphone apps. Though, when compared to statistics for app downloads in the rest of the world, the app market in Africa remains relatively untapped.

Currently, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana has the largest number of app downloaders. The challenge is to stimulate and develop this trend for it to take shape and develop into the Sub-Saharan part of the African continent.

All of this data on the current situation in Africa indicates that distance education(embracing everything from MOOC to m-learning based around smartphone apps, and from e-learning conducted via video streamed lectures to other types of online courses) is the way forward for Africa. If implemented correctly, e-learning strategies could surmount to infrastructure related success such as in the case demonstrated in the four countries and provide educational opportunities to Africa in large with its growing and youthful population.

This could open doors to adult learners who missed out on primary and/ or secondary education in their youth. The crucial aspect at the moment is to implement MOOC and other e-learning strategies correctly.

My research suggests that blended learning is the best way to go ahead with in e-learning.

Below is an evaluation of blended learning strategies which consist of how they can help young minds in Africans learn.

Blended learning: a working definition, what does it all mean?

Blended learning means a mixture of classical learning strategies and online education measures. As its name indicates, it is a ‘blend’ of online and offline learning techniques.

One great example of blended learning would be a university campus that allows students to stream some of their lectures online from any location of their choice. The Online Business School is an example of this approach. Located in UK, you can study from at home from all over the world, completely online. 

Another blended learning strategy which might combine online and offline distance education is whereby students are encouraged to access online resources in order to conduct their research. Students are allowed to submit essays and assessments and receive feedback by post.

These are just two examples of the ways in which different educational methods can be blended together. When implementing a blended learning strategy, the important thing is to ensure that the blend is specifically tailored to suit the needs of the individual learners and their environments. Video streamed lectures are less necessary in a university where students all live on campus and the infrastructure is provided by their government.

Further logic indicates that providing lectures which can be accessed online might have the effect of demotivating such students and depriving them access to a readily available embodied classroom experience. However, this type of distance education tool is perfect for learners in very remote areas who find it impossible to attend the lectures in person.

Nyanga High School in Ngcobo, Eastern Cape, is a well-managed school. It achieves above 90% Matric pass rates every year. It produces learners who win provincial and national top achiever accolades. It is a school that has consistently debunked the myth that rural schools with limited resources can never match their well-resourced counterparts in the more affluent areas.

The Khulile Qamata-led school has once more displayed that where there is visionary leadership magic happens. Whilst the Department of Basic Education grapples with a messy procurement process which forced it to postpone re-opening of schools from the initial 1 June to 8 June, a date yet to be cast in concrete as some education districts are struggling to supply Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for learners and educators, Qamata utilised the meagre resources at the school to ensure that his staff and learners were ready for classes on 1 June.

The Department has thus far only managed to deliver PPE for staff and nothing yet for learners. Instead of lamenting the delays, Headmaster Qamata, his School Management Team and the School Governing Body took a decision to procure their own.

Tuition started as planned, with learners and educators wearing masks and face shields, desks set up the “Covid Way” to ensure social distancing. Nyanga has 209 learners in Grade 12, taught by 47 educators.

“All the learners are staying at the hostel. It’s capacity is 412 so it has been easy to ensure social distancing for the learners even inside the dormitories”, said a proud Qamata speaking exclusively to HotNews.

Asked what special arrangements have been made for catering, Qamata had this to say: “The dining hall has been re-arranged to ensure social distancing. The catering company in charge of meals has provided PPE for the cooks, fumigation of hostel, kitchen, dining hall and classrooms at no cost to the school. Orientation was done”.

https://hotnews.org.za/nyanga-high-showcases-the-covid-way/?fbclid=IwAR16eQCC8_fro1iZD1ai80pqCahEjY89du-8FntkFZRd8nibW-oJe0bXgLA