How do we get our youth future-fit? Reignite their sense of wonder, says GWF
As we celebrate Youth Month, the question on many lips is: how do we unlock the potential of South Africa’s youth? According to Good Work Foundation (GWF), a non-profit organisation operating mainly in rural Mpumalanga, we need to rekindle the sense of childhood wonder that conventional education tends to extinguish – by tapping into the “three Cs” of curiosity, creativity and confidence.
GWF, which turns 10 this year, has an impressive track record in helping children and adults from under-resourced communities around the Kruger National Park (and in Philippolis in the Free State) 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 (held both on-site at schools and at GWF’s digital learning campuses) 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,” explains Open Learning Academy 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 to learn. The high cost of data is a huge barrier to learning in these rural communities.”
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 4s to date, but GWF is expanding its reach to Grade 3 learners as well, to help them navigate the tricky transition from the foundation phase to the intermediate phase of schooling. Grades 5 to 7 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 amount 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, says Holm. These online resources are best used in a blended environment that fuses physical and digital learning, she adds.
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, says Holm.
Issued by Flow Communications on behalf of Good Work Foundation. For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Khaya Thwala on khayat@flowsa.com or +27 78 349 0668.
About Good Work Foundation (GWF)
Good Work Foundation (GWF) is a non-profit that is pioneering an ecosystem of learning and working fit to empower rural Africa. GWF is building affordable and targeted education support structures, and industry-ready social enterprises, to transform rural communities in some of Africa’s most marginalised places. For more information please visit https://www.goodworkfoundation.org/
