Extra lessons help learners affected by COVID-19 school closures

Veronica Makusha, 11, has always been enthusiastic about her studies, but she was extremely deflated when schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“I come from an underprivileged family, we don’t have a radio at home so radio lessons were almost impossible for me. I was not happy at all,” says the standard six learner at Mitole Primary School in Chiwkawa District.

Adamant to make sure she doesn’t fall behind in her studies, she sought support from her teacher, Mrs. Cynthia Likathomanja. Veronica made her way to Mrs. Likathomanja’s home every day of the week to get lessons on five subjects, including Chichewa, which she struggles with the most.

Helping students stay on track with their studies following the impact of COVID-19 school closures is a crucial part of Mrs. Likathomanja’s work. She is one of five teachers at Chikwawa Primary School who received Remediation Training to support students who need extra support and attention in class. The training provided the teachers with skills in assessment and teaching methods for remedial classes. This was part of efforts aimed at mitigating learning losses among learners due to the COVID-19  school closures. The training was done with support from UNICEF and funding from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and benefitted approximately 4,142 primary and lower secondary school teachers.

“The training taught us that each child needs to be taught at a different pace. As teachers, we have to make sacrifices such as working late, during break time and holidays to help children achieve better learning outcomes,” says Mrs. Likathomanja.

The impact of COVID-19 was catastrophic. Mitole Primary School had a significant number of dropouts and cases of teen pregnancies as children had so much free time since they were not in school. According to the 2021 Education Management Information System (EMIS), Malawi experienced a 10 per cent drop out in primary schools during the 2020/2021 academic year.

Mrs. Likathomanja, who has been at the school since 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, adds that “Schools were closed for over five  months and the learners missed out so much, to the extent that when schools finally reopened, we had to start certain subjects from scratch instead of picking up from where we left off.”

Most learners didn’t do well in their learning assessments upon returning to school. However, there has been a massive improvement due to the extra support the children are getting to improve their studies. “It makes you feel good,” Mrs. Likathomanja utters with a wide grin.

For Veronica, school reopening gave her hope again. She was excited to use all the knowledge from the extra lessons she got from Mrs. Likathomanja during the holidays once school reopened.

“There were times I felt I would never continue school, but my teacher helped a lot. I still meet her weekly to get extra lessons, so I continue to improve my studies,” she explains. “Last term, I finished number one, and I hope to maintain this so someday I can achieve my dream of going to university and becoming a nurse.”