How does one unlock the potential of South Africa’s youth?
According to the Good Work Foundation (GWF), a non-profit organisation operating mainly in rural Mpumalanga, the sense of childhood wonder, that conventional education tends to extinguish, needs to be rekindled. This can be done by tapping into the three Cs: curiosity, creativity and confidence.
GWF, which turns 10 this year, has an impressive track record of helping children and adults from under-resourced communities around the Kruger National Park to rediscover a love of learning through, for example, gamification, music and art. Its Open Learning Academy focuses on building English, mathematics and digital literacy skills as well as life skills, reaching about 11 000 rural learners a month. The classes do not replace conventional classroom learning, but rather complement it in collaboration with the schools.
“The intention is to provide access to learning through the use of digital tools, and to ignite a passion for learning,” explained Open Learning Academy’s programme manager, Cath Holm.
“These children have no access to technology in their schools, but when they come to one of our digital learning campuses, they have the opportunity to discover different digital apps, tools and games that help them learn. The high cost of data is a huge barrier to learning in these rural communities.”
ALSO READ: Estralita Special School returns victorious from national eisteddfod
The academy sets out to nurture the whole child within the context of 21st century learning, bearing in mind the Fourth Industrial Revolution-slanted workplace of the future, but also the need for creative thinkers.
The focus has been on Grade Fours to date, but GWF is expanding its reach to Grade Three learners as well to help them navigate the tricky transition from foundation phase to intermediate phase. Grades Five to Seven also get the benefit of experiential immersion training, visiting game reserves to learn about anti-rhino poaching efforts and wildlife conservation.
The beauty of the flexible, interactive open-learning approach is the number of open-source educational tools available that anyone can access for free, from coding and English apps to Lego-building manuals and data-free educational sites. These online resources are best used in a blended environment that fuses physical and digital learning, said Holm.
ALSO READ: 37 arrested following protest in the Lowveld
Many children who have enrolled in the Open Learning Academy have seen an improvement in their academic performance, but the focus is really on qualitative results: inspiring children to think and enabling them to discover what they are passionate about, said Holm.
GWF’s CEO Kate Groch said, “For me, it’s about unlocking the curiosity and excitement of learning by giving the agency of learning back to the child. Humans are, by nature, wired to learn, and open learning gives these children the opportunity to turn on that curiosity again, stoke the fire, and never put the lid on it again.”
Do you have more information about the story?
Please send us an email to editorial@lowvelder.co.za.
For free breaking and community news, visit Lowvelder’s website: Lowvelder
For more news and interesting articles, like Lowvelder on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
