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‘WHAT IS THIS HOME LEARNING?’

27/04/2020 00:32:00 BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA

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MHLAMBANYATSI - While many pupils are trying to follow through the newly-launched home learning, some scholars and their parents are clueless about its existence.

“What is home learning?”
This was the question, in a confused state, that was asked by Zodwa Dvuba (54) of Emaplazini in Mhlambanyatsi, when asked if her grandchildren were coping with the newly-implemented home learning system.

This question is no surprise as Emaplazini is an informal human settlement with no civilisation. The community, with over 15 homesteads, does not enjoy the privileges of electricity and running water and this is attributed to the fact that they are not registered and/or recognised by Urban Settlement.

Media

Early this month, the Ministry of Education and Training introduced home learning programmes on broadcast media (TV and radio), the internet (YouTube) and national newspapers (Times of Eswatini and Eswatini Observer). The lessons cover primary to high school syllabuses, mainly for external classes.

The people in households at Emaplazini have no frequent access to television, radio and any technology because there is no electricity. Also, buying newspapers is a mammoth task as there are no shops nearby. The nearest one is about four kilometres away, at Mhlambanyatsi Village.
Dvuba has stayed for over 30 years at Emaplazini since she relocated from Nhlangano, her hometown, to work at Forester’s Arms. Since her stay after getting married there, the place has not enjoyed the pleasures of civilisation.

Silence

At the homestead, and in other surrounding ones, this journalist observed that there was complete silence that had a sting-the silence of lack, no pleasures and of being deprived of the necessities of life. Only one homestead has a satellite dish and that is due to the solar system that they use to generate power.
The people of the community have to walk for close to two kilometres to fetch water at Mhlambanyatsi River. Some homesteads resorted to having tanks, just to have water nearby.

Dvuba, a widow who is now heading her household, admitted that she was not aware of the new learning system. When asked if her children were aware, she said she assumed they were not as there was no mention of it.
Dvuba’s household has four children who are attending school.

Two are doing Grade VI and one Grade VII at Jabavu Primary School in Mhlambanyatsi and only one is attending Form I at Bhunya High School.

Books

The Grade VII pupil was the only one who had been noticed by Dvuba opening his books.
“The one who has been studying is in an external class and I reckon that is the reason behind his motivation. Otherwise, the others barely open their books and no one really makes a follow-up. I personally think being in the classroom is the best way for them to learn,” said Dvuba.

The household head easily discarded any idea of using TV or radio as a method of keeping their children up-to-date with their syllabuses.
“Besides having no electricity, they just do not have any TV set or radio in any of the houses,” she said.

Dvuba also said they bought newspapers once in a blue moon.
She said the only convenient way for her grandchildren to catch up was by getting hold of newspapers every day, with the assistance of government as they could not afford to buy them.

“The government would have assisted so much if we got a daily supply of newspapers because there are no hopes of using radio or TV,” she said.
When asked if anyone in her home owned a smart cellphone which could also access lessons on the internet, Dvuba stared back clueless.
“I do not know what you are talking about. Maybe you can ask the children,” she said.

Besides her worry of not being up to speed with the new learning system, the widow expressed great concern on the hunger wave that was about to hit hard on her family, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to the limited agricultural practices in the area, most of the homesteads rely on buying food, including mealie-meal. The maize that they harvested did not last them the whole year.
Like many residents of the area, the 54-year-old woman worked at Forester’s Arms Hotel.
She worked in the landscaping department and with her income, she was able to feed her family.

Unemployed

“I fear that we will be told to stay home in no time. There is not much activity at the hotel and if the situation persists, we will be home unemployed,” she said, in a worried state.

The family has 17 members and 12 of them stay there fulltime. With children staying at home and not getting any meals from school, their food stock has almost depleted.

“We are already hungry and the sad part is there is no hope of replenishing the food. The situation was already dire and with this new ‘flu’ (coronavirus), things are about to get worse,” she said.

Minister of Education and Training Lady Mabuza said the ministry was aware there was a population that could not access the home learning initiative and something was being done.

“We are making means of reaching the population that does not have access to home learning and it might be ready by next week. This pandemic is new to us and there will obviously be loopholes to the various means we are making to keep the children educated. However, this does not mean that we will not attend to the people who know nothing about this new system,” said Mabuza.

Patient

Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini said people should be patient with the Ministry of Education and Training in this regard.
“It goes without saying that home learning will not be equally effective as going to class.

“This is a new situation to everyone. There will be remedial when schools open and the education sector should be preparing a system to close the gap,” said Dlamini.
He said this type of learning was put in place so that pupils would not lie idle while at home. Dlamini said this system was meant to contain pupils.