BY ISAAC NTULI
A Switzerland-based college is providing support to a Hwange school to set up online learning facilities at a time poor Zimbabwean schools are reeling from Covid-19 induced disruptions.
The Swiss institution Empower Me First College said it will provide Ndlovu Secondary School on the outskirts of Victoria Falls with virtual e-learning connectivity that will see over 300 learners benefiting.
Speaking at the launch of the pilot programme recently, the director of Empower Me First College Bridget Cohn said their target was to equip learners and teachers with technology as a way of improving the pass rate in rural schools.
“We are here to empower marginalized and disadvantaged communities with knowledge,” Cohn said.
“All the learners have to bring is an android phone and we will supply the lessons, teachers, data bundles and internet connectivity.”
Ndlovu Secondary School’s e-learning centre’ co-ordinator Sitshengisiwe Mlilo said they were looking forward to the implementation of the programme, which they hope will transform the learners’ education.
Meanwhile, in the past two weeks Empower Me First College’s technicians have tried in vain to connect more than two hundred potential learners who had gathered at Ndlovu Secondary School and other proposed learning centres in Katchetchete ward for registration due to poor electricity supplies and internet connectivity.
At the event, a Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe official who only identified himself as Gladwell said they were only connecting schools in Mashonaland and Matabeleland North was not in their immediate plans.
The non-Formal Education Policy was crafted by the government in 2015 and is targeting learners who dropped out of school due to either early pregnancy, lack of financial assistance to pay school fees, and other issues.
Four more additional e-learning canters are set to be established in Simakade Primary School, Bethesda Primary School, Chimbombo Primary School,and BH28 Resource Centre in the Hlanganani village under Chief Mvuthu.