Formats vary across the continent, with an Ivorian start-up offering courses via text messages.
The coronavirus may not have hit Africa as badly as other parts of the world but with schools and universities closed because of mass lockdowns across the continent, many children are turning on the television to keep up with their studies.
In Senegal, Futurs Medias, owned by the singer Youssou Ndour, gives lessons three times a day to all classes, including vocational education. “We record the lessons, which we broadcast on television, basically the core subjects — mathematics, physics-chemistry, philosophy and French,” says the channel’s director, Ismael Ouedraogo. Free at first, it does become a paid service later.
“Most students do not have access to the internet, especially since many have been asked to return to their homes, often in remote locations,” says professor Henry Tumwiine of the Mountains of the Moon University in Fort Portal, Uganda.“In sub-Saharan Africa, 89 percent of learners do not have access to home computers and 82 percent do not have internet,” UNESCO said in a statement, noting a “worrying digital gap in distance learning”.
Television, therefore, is far from a miracle cure. The lack of interactivity between teachers and students is a big minus. On top of that, the students cannot ask questions and the teachers have no way of testing the students’ understanding.
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