SA Dept of Basic Education Launch HealthCheck on Innovative New WhatsApp Platform

The Department of Basic Education and E³ launched the Covid-19 digital pre-screening, risk assessment and mapping tool HealthCheck on the newly launched platform TeacherConnect.

The TeacherConnect platform is being developed as a way to empower and support teachers, by providing access to the best learning content in an ultra-convenient place – WhatsApp!

HealthCheck is the first tool to be available on the TeacherConnect platform and will play a crucial role in helping to protect teachers and learners as schools reopen. With school communities expected to do a quick and convenient daily symptom-check, HealthCheck will provide a much needed early-warning system to help keep schools open.

Developed for the South African National Department of Health by Praekelt.org, HealthCheck has already been used very successfully at tertiary institutions across South Africa, with almost 3.5  million checks already completed to date. It has also garnered international interest from  the likes of the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNESCO, who want to help this critical intervention reach as many of WhatsApp’s 2 Billion Monthly Active Users as possible.

Also Read: Children might play a bigger role in Covid-19 transmission than first thought. Schools must prepare

As the first step in the Department of Basic Education’s protocol on Screening, Testing and Linkage to Care, teachers, non-teaching staff, and parents (on behalf of their children), should do a daily HealthCheck through the TeacherConnect platform where they will answer a few simple questions relating to Covid-19 symptoms and risk.

The HealthCheck tool will also issue receipts after users complete their pre-screening self-assessment, providing educators, support staff, and parents, an endorsed declaration of their risk level with a validity period of 24 hours.

As it rolls out, TeacherConnect will have a comprehensive collection of valuable information and resources that allow for deep engagement and feedback opportunities for teachers via WhatsApp. The content featured will include Training and Development modules for teachers, weekly video and text-based Resources, guidance on how to develop critical 21st Century Competencies in our learners, and even access to digital Professional Learning Communities and support from highly skilled teacher development coaches.

“The TeacherConnect platform has come at just the right time, as we work to get schooling safely back on track,” says Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga. “The new normal can be stressful, but with good quality information we can make good decisions that help us beat Covid-19 and get back to normal as swiftly as possible.”

“It is abundantly clear that additional support is needed for teachers, non-teaching staff and indeed our learners. The TeacherConnect platform will help the basic education sector in providing much needed information for schools. There are a few months left before the end of the school year and the HealthCheck service in particular will help us to keep going and eliminate the need to close schools again due to health fears.”

“The  E³ team is extremely grateful to have built with the leadership of the DBE, nationally and in all the provinces, a technology tool that will allow, on a moment by moment basis, for Health outbreaks to be quickly and proactively identified,” adds E³ ‘s National Chairperson, Taddy Blecher.

“In this way, in any school, community, district, or province, teachers can be better protected, millions of lives can hopefully be kept safer, and those with higher health risks can be alerted timeously, and get the care they need in order to get well. Through working to create a proactive, daily, early-warning system, this tool can assist to keep schools open, and thereby keep learning alive across the country, allowing every young person to keep working towards their own educational, employment, and entrepreneurial dreams.”

Teachers, parents and learners can access HealthCheck on TeacherConnect 24/7 by saving the number +27 60 060 3333 to their contacts and then messaging the word ‘hi’ to start a conversation or do a HealthCheck.

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