Bridging the Gaps in Education Caused by Covid-19

All Saints Anglican is now officially a Doodle Learning School. It’s been four years since the COVID-19 pandemic turned our world upside down, forcing communities into isolation and pushing education online. This shift left many young children with gaps in their learning. But today, there’s good news. The Ministry of Education donated several Chromebooks to the school, allowing students to fully participate in the Doodle Learning program. This innovative initiative gives students the chance to boost their Math and English skills. Here’s News Five’s Britney Gordon with more details.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

Early childhood development is crucial, as these years lay the foundation for a child’s entire academic journey, especially when it comes to learning how to read. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to shift to online classrooms, which hindered many children’s academic progress. Today, the Ministry of Education took a big step to address this by handing over Doodle Learning Tablets to All Saints Anglican Primary School in Belize City. This initiative aims to bridge the gaps left in the wake of the pandemic.

 

Collin Estrada, Principal, All Saints Primary School

“During COVID we lost some time even though we had online classes. And when we had done Even our own internal assessments. We know that how some students are behind. And so this program will aid in terms of being able to fill the gaps that are there. So that our students will be able to be at level.”

 

The tablets are equipped with Math and English lessons, targeted for standard four students. The program is licensed by the school for one year so that the current standard three students will benefit as well when they advance to standard four.

 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“Students in that age group of say ten  to twelve were most affected. And then it also highlighted, no surprise to us, it also highlighted that in these foundational areas of math and language, reading spelling, timetable those things were specific areas that were identified as areas that were weak. And those are obviously foundational subjects and foundational areas. So we had to come up with a plan to target that, and this is a part of that response. It’s not, obviously it’s a part of a much larger response to this issue that has been ongoing for many years.”

 

The project, sponsored by the International Development Bank, is set to expand and reach students across the country.

 

Francis Fonseca

“It’s going to target six students across the country from seventy different schools, seventy government and grant aided schools. It’s going to be for three years certainly in the first instance. So it’s a good initiative and the whole idea is to make, to take a very interactive, fun, experiential kind of approach to learning because we know that’s how young people today learn.”

 

Recent graduates of the school were not able to benefit from the program as it was launched after their graduation. Estrada assures us that while these children were at the school, they received all the extra help the school could offer at the time.

 

Collin Estrada

“One of the things that we at this institution tried as much to do during that period was that we had the Google Suite and even up to the point that we had here whereby we were able to lend students computer to be able to take home so there won’t be that much of a deficiency. Okay, so I could tell you while we are going through COVID during that time, we because of a donor, Anwar Barrow and our barrio, we had repurposed some funds and we were able to get in computers. And so we were able to loan them to our students who were in standard 5 and 6 at the time.”

 

Britney Gordon for News Five.