Community and parental participation in the learning of children amidst Covid-19 and school closure

• In Event: COVID-19 lockdowns: How to reach students during extended school closures

Proposal

Covid-19 has put education in a challenging place. With millions of children out of school, education needs to reinvent itself. During the pandemic, communities have used this opportunity to support children’s education in various ways, including the parents taking primary roles in their children education and launching of new online learning of children (World bank reports 2021). In this presentation will discuss the social factors and community structures model as lessons to help communities strengthen their education support systems beyond Covid-19. The discussion will highlight various models for community participation that could continue after the Covid-19 pandemic. It urges the community interventions and school system to be flexible and incorporate community driven parental engagement with experiential learning. This community driven educational intervention is designed to provide much needed place-based supplementary education opportunities to learners.
This presentation will present successful engagement of education stakeholders in the learning of children amidst school closures during Covid-19 which reveals the improvement of learning outcomes and competencies of children in the communities. The program is in 12 communities in Northern Uganda where local leaders such as chairpersons Local Council 1 of the 12 communities have an active role in this community based learning initiative. In the intervention communities, there are organized groups of an average number of 35 members who set up community learning centers within their communities where each learning centers accommodates averagely 30 children.
The presentation also focuses on the important role of village education committees in the learning of children in each community. The program works in 8 primary schools and 90% of community members of nearby targeted schools have increased the availability of learning materials and provided conducive learning environment for children. 12 community groups are supporting some innovative education initiatives which can be replicated in different context. This presentation paper will also discuss the important of engaging program alumni, and retired teachers to provide learning of children in the communities where 70% of engaged alumni and retired teachers within 6 months are helping more than 1,200 children in 12 communities in Northern Uganda. This intervention brings out community groups initiative to incorporate education activities in their by-laws which is enabling community members to continuously supporting education beyond any external grant. The evidence of village education committees supports to organize meeting and monitoring of parental to child communication will be discussed.

Authors

• ALUM KANDIDA, Foundation for Inclusive Community Help (FICH)

• Emmy Zoomlamai Okello, Foundation for Inclusive Community Help (FICH)