Helping students learn during emergencies

A NON-GOVERNMENT organisation (NGO) is working with authorities to ensure children in disaster stricken areas or in communities impacted by emergencies such as disease outbreaks are still able to receive an education.
Save the Children PNG says it has been working in partnership with the Education Department through funding from United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) to help teachers continue classes following emergencies or disasters such as the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Save the Children PNG, in a statement, said one way of ensuring children’s learning continued had been through using the electronic learning devices such as the Library for All (LFA) tablets that were part of a kit.
It said 23 schools in the National Capital District (NCD) were part of a training late last year on the LFA Spark Box kits.
Each school had a representative participate in the training on how to properly utilise the kit. It said the LFA Spark Box kits contained a set of tablets which could be used as a platform for students and teachers to access education materials.
Using an application called “Elevate”, children could navigate and read books.
The tablets could also enable the students’ access to numeracy and literacy skills.
It was created to help students’ foundational education skills.
Each Spark Box kit contains 40 tablets that the teacher issues to each student to access digitised learning materials that can either be accessed online or offline.
The LFA kits support work being done by Save the Children’s Education in emergencies response and recovery plan project outcomes on ensuring that students have access to learning materials when schools are closed, and, therefore, ensuring the education system is continued all through out these unexpected disruptions.