The pandemic has forced school gates to close, but this should not be a reason for education to stop.
Many schools have launched online learning platforms. However, teaching and learning via these platforms come with many challenges.
Job losses in families have a direct impact on learners’ ability to take part in online learning.
“Parents should never have to choose between educating their children or feeding them and that is why we need your help.”Let’s make a difference and #helpuslearn,” said Jade le Roux, principal of Henley High and Preparatory School (HHPS).
The school, situated in Henley on Klip, just south of Alberton and Johannesburg South areas, has embarked on an online campaign to get free data to all learners to carry on with their school work.
HHPS is urging all schools, parents, companies and other individuals to join them in their drive to get free data to all learners.
The RECORD caught up with Jade and asked her a couple of questions about their initiative.
Where did the idea originate?
The school launched its online teaching platforms on April 14 and had a wonderful response from learners and parents.
“They were all excited about the new platform and were constantly engaged in the online activities,” said Jade.
However, two weeks into the programme the number of learners actively participating and completing activities dropped.
“Upon investigation, we realised that many parents were struggling to keep up with the data costs to keep their children part of the online platforms.
“I decided we need to look into how we could assist parents (and children) in order for them to continue learning during lockdown. We did not want any of our learners to be left behind.
“I had a meeting with a few of my teachers to brainstorm some ideas and the idea of #helpuslearn was born.”
WATCH: #HelpUsLearn
Get the ball rolling
They then made contact with the high school’s head prefects and asked them to write a speech to the President about why they believed data should be freely available for educational purposes.
Then they approached parents and asked them to send a photo of their child with #helpuslearn somewhere in the photo.
“The idea behind the video and the campaign was that it came from the learners. This is something that is affecting many of them on a daily basis and we wanted people to see their faces.
“We could’ve gotten our director to write a letter to the CEO’s of the mobile networks and then sat back and waited. But I believed (and still do) that it would have a much bigger impact if the learners drove the campaign.
“The schoolgoing generation is what we call a “woke generation” and who better to get to drive change?”
Private vs government schools
Jade explained that them being a private school makes no difference to the fact that data is costly and that thousands of learners are suffering because of this.
“This campaign is not about “us and them” (private vs government). It is about giving all school going learners access to online learning regardless of what school they attend.
“We believe that education is a right and that all learners should be able to continue learning even during the pandemic we are facing,” she said.
Get involved
HHPS invites other schools to create their own videos, with their own speeches and photos. They believe the more voices and faces they have behind this campaign the better
“We want people to see that this affects more than just the learners at Henley High and Preparatory School.
“Once schools have created their own video they can share it on social media platforms and tag #helpuslearn. They can then email their video links to helpuslearn@hhps.co.za so that we can upload them to our website.
“We want to create awareness and therefore sharing their videos and photos far and wide is what we want people to do. “We are hoping that a #helpuslearn video will be seen by people who are able to help us make a change.”
Although their main focus is to get schools (Grades R to 12) involved they don’t want to exclude anyone who would like to get involved.
“If a company would like to be actively involved in our campaign for free data for all learners, they are welcome to create a video as well and send it to us.
“We are happy to put their logo and contact details on our website to show they are supporting our initiative,” Jade said.
Show support
Communities can show support by:
• Signing their petition (https://www.change.org/helpuslearn)
• Following and sharing their social media platforms
• Spreading the word about the campaign
• Moms and dads are invited to make their own videos, actually, anyone can create a video and HHPS will gladly upload the video links to their platforms.
For more information visit helpuslearn.co.za or pop them an email at helpuslearn@hhps.co.za
VIEW GALLERY: #HelpUsLearn
