On October 21st, ClassIn was honored to present its first Uganda-specific webinar titled How to Sustain Continuous Learning amid School Closures in Uganda.
Hosted by Godwin Bahangondi, Director at Eduln Technologies, the webinar featured Areebabyona Kanyonyore, Business Manager of Trinity Schools, Lilian Matovu, Principal of Our Lady of Africa Schools, and Ahwera Rabwon, Physics Teacher at St Mark’s College Namagoma. Following the latest presidential statements on further COVID-19 lockdown measures in Uganda, the panel shared effective ways to ensure continuous learning with regard to uniquely local challenges.
Challenges Posed by the Pandemic
In Uganda, waves of school closures since March 15, 2020 have severely impacted schools. Notably, the financial situation of schools suffered a serious setback as the median revenue dropped by 80% nationwide. What’s worse was that by July, 91% of schools were unable to pay their teachers any salary. “Governments are fearful of opening schools due to the lack of funding but also for the fear of COVID-19 spread among student population,” Mr. Bahangondi stressed.
In addition, particular student demographics are hit harder than others. With limited resources at hand, many educational institutions struggle with supporting or retaining their international students. Schools also witnessed a decrease in the number of female students due to marriages and pregnancies.
On the other hand, despite emergency measures taken by schools to deliver classes online, the learning effectiveness failed to meet the expectations of teachers and administrators. Network malfunctions, limited teaching resources, poor class management, as well as low participation rates undermined the quality and efficiency of virtual learning.
Seeking Ways to Maintain Learning Continuity
Due to the suspension of in-person instruction, schools have attempted various methods to champion uninterrupted learning while ensuring the safety of students and teachers. During the initial phase of lockdown from March 2020 to October 2020, teachers at Trinity Schools recorded their lessons on DVDs and delivered them to students with hardcopy notes. However, due to long mail cycles and the lack of tools for real-time interaction, teachers were unable to obtain timely feedback from students or measure learning outcomes.
While pursuing a bachelors’ degree at Makerere University, Ahwera Rabwon got a chance to interact with an e-learning platform in 2016. Since then, he has been trying to use EdTech to engage students in class. “COVID-19 hit the world, hardly one year after leaving University and this was an opportunity for me to implement my eLearning ideas I had collected over time. I interacted with 18 EdTech software available at the time,” Rabwon reflected.
Our lady of Africa Schools had also embraced online teaching promptly to keep in touch with students and parents. The schools tried all kinds of platforms and applications. While they provided a solution to face-to-face meetings, other challenges such as data consumption, the lack of interaction, as well as homework checks remained.
ClassIn Ensures Long-Term, Effective Learning
Our webinar speakers learned about ClassIn through different sources, but they all felt that the experience ClassIn brought to classrooms exceeded their expectations. “After my convictions that ClassIn was the next big thing in education and EdTech sectors, the next stage was for me to experiment it with my students. They like it,” said Ahwera Rabwon after comparing various platforms. And when the second lockdown went into effect in June 2021, he advised St. Mark’s College Namagoma to use ClassIn for continuous teaching and learning.
When it comes to K12 education, Areebabyona Kanyonyore described a truly student-centered learning experience after adopting ClassIn. “All the lessons are pretty much run by the students, and all the teacher does is to moderate the lesson…We as a school have learned better ways of how to engage the children and how to let the children engage themselves,” Kanyonyore observed.
“All the lessons are pretty much run by the students, and all the teacher does is to moderate the lesson…We as a school have learned better ways of how to engage the children and how to let the children engage themselves." -- Areebabyona Kanyonyore, Business Manager of Trinity Schools
Lilian Matovu highlighted ClassIn’s administrative features: “Our administrators can supervise and analyze teachers’ and students’ performance anytime from anywhere. Don’t forget that the school’s reputation is everything to you. It gives real-time class monitoring, class recording library, and attendance tracking.”
ClassIn offers a wide range of interactive tools and communication channels for both live classes and recordings. As a result, teachers and administrators observed that classes became more efficient and versatile. “ClassIn is an online teaching platform that enables teachers and students from across the globe to come together face-to-face and learn in a collaborative online environment,” Mr. Kanyonyore summarized.
Related Resources
Webinar Recording: How to Sustain Continuous Learning amid School Closures in Uganda
About ClassIn: https://www.classin.com/en/
Read More:
*ClassIn is a leading edtech company that provides a one-stop solution for digital learning.
ClassIn software enables interactive classrooms, in-school social app, lesson scheduling, homework management, and school management dashboard, which start free and scale up to meet our customers' needs at any stage of teaching. Today, thousands of schools and institutions around the world benefit from ClassIn's powerful and easy-to-use tools to teach online and offline.