The E-learning centre
“I want Sulafa to keep learning, I don’t want the e-learning center to be her last stop, she can become a doctor and heal people’s bodies”.
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Imagine a small village, at the shore of the River Nile, not far from the border between North and South Sudan. The sun is shining brightly on small houses made of mud with thatched roofs. Goats and chickens roam freely. And in the middle of this all is a single colourful building: the e-learning center.
It’s dark inside the center, but when your eyes are adjusted you can see a dozen children quietly sitting on mats on the floor. They don’t look up at who is entering, instead they keep playing the reading, writing and math educational games on their tablets.
‘It’s wonderful”, Fatima, mother of 14-year old student Sulafa” tells us.
“My daughter has learned to read and count in no time; she now helps me to save numbers in my phone and can also read the text messages I receive.”
When the school in the village was destroyed due to flooding of the Nile, the children were suddenly robbed of their right to education. Some of the girls and boys walked to the school in the nearest town, at more than 5 kilometer distance. Najwa, 11-year old, doesn’t remember how long it took them, just that they woke up early but only arrived after the classes had already started.
Last year, UNICEF opened the e-learning center. These centers target out-of-school children who don’t have access to a normal school. The center runs on solar-power and works with a double or triple shift system so that as many children as possible have the opportunity to learn.
Locally-recruited facilitators are in charge of the e-learning centers. They do not just receive a training on teaching and pedagogy, but also understand how the educational games, tablets and solar panels work.
To ensure ownership, the community itself is responsible for constructing the center using local materials like rocks, mud and reeds.
Fatima is happy with the progress her daughter is making.
“I want Sulafa to keep learning, I don’t want the e-learning center to be her last stop, she can become a doctor and heal people’s bodies”.
Sulafa is not so sure of becoming a doctor, she prefers to be a teacher but definitely a teacher in an e-learning center!
