Community Schools Continue Teaching and Learning during Covid-19 in the Central African Republic
By Judicaël Mokolé and Elena Toukan. Photo courtesy of authors.
21 July 2020
Since the first case of Covid-19 was reported in the Central African Republic (CAR) in March, restrictions have been put into effect across the country. Many government schools, which already struggled with overcrowding prior to Covid-19 and have little access to running water or hygiene facilities, were among the first institutions to close in response to public health measures, with only a few state examination centers remaining open.
Severe conflict and internal displacement during the Central African Bush War in 2004–2007 and the Civil War of 2012-2019 had already caused regular state school closures throughout the past two decades. Nonetheless, a growing network of schools at the community level have harnessed the enthusiasm, creativity, and flexibility of local families and neighbors to safely and creatively respond to these previous crises through education.
Since 2004, the Bangui-based Fondation Ahdieh has focused on community schools and local teacher development as adaptable responses to diverse crises. Mr. Judicaël Mokolé serves as Deputy Director of the Fondation Ahdieh since its beginning, and Dr. Elena Toukan has participated in the organization as a researcher. Now over 40 primary schools for children from Kindergarten to Grade 6 operate across the country through the efforts and contributions of local community members, parents, and teachers, with the pedagogical support of the Fondation Ahdieh.
A staged approach
Being familiar with times of crisis, community schools have taken a three-stage approach to the present pandemic conditions, which has allowed community school students to continue learning even when government schools have been closed. First, the schools responded immediately to the government’s call for classes to close while ensuring that administrative offices remained open to teachers and directors with physical distancing and hygiene measures in place. This step demonstrated to parents, students, and community members that schools were not on hiatus. Instead, the message was that schools were still present in communities and would find a way to move forward together with families. Since community school directors and teachers live in the same neighborhood or village as their students, there was no need to travel and they could remain in place while keeping their offices open.
Second, seeing the administration still open, parents began to approach them to ask how they could help the schools continue to educate their children. Teachers and administrators then began consulting with families about what might be possible. They decided to organize students into small groups of 5-10 in neighboring homes in conformity with health guidelines, where teachers could safely visit and provide lessons and instruction in their écoles décentralisées (decentralized schools). Teachers complemented their regular lessons with content about the virus: what it was, how it infects people, and how to prevent its spread. Students were asked to share this information with family members as part of their lessons, which helped reliable information about the pandemic reach communities and counter the spread of misinformation and rumors.
Now in their third stage, teachers and the Fondation Ahdieh are working systematically with parents to identify the ways in which they can safely assist the children in their communities. For instance, the foundation provided parents with simple training materials on how to assist groups of students, identifying those parents who can read and write as potential “assistant teachers” to ensure that the quality and regularity of learning will continue. Parents differ in their abilities to support the children, but they have nevertheless found creative means to collaborate, from building benches and finding chalk and small blackboards while schools remain closed, to assisting with their children’s lessons and instruction. Parents have reported that engaging their children meaningfully in continued learning has also helped to keep them out of the streets and public spaces that are riskier during the current pandemic.
Fondation Ahdieh aims to promote quality education for children by providing training and support to teachers and supporting the development of community schools in the Central African Republic.
Preparing for further changes and challenges
Responding to this crisis has occurred quickly among the community schools, but has not been without difficulty. Teachers immediately encountered challenges as they worked to set up the decentralized classrooms. It took time to stabilize the student groups; it is difficult to teach more than two groups of students on a daily basis; and some parents have been more supportive than others. Presently the foundation is working on building understanding of the content of the daily study program and strengthening its quality, in preparation for future Covid-19 cases and resulting restrictions.
The community schools’ response to crisis has unfolded with close reflection and response to the shifting social and physical reality of the pandemic. The principles that have always guided the Fondation Ahdieh's approach to community schools, however, have proved crucial here: to see the community as a powerful protagonist in responding to its own challenges, and to see education as a vital process of community life that can be sustained by the community under any time or condition.
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this publication belong solely to the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of REACH or the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
About the authors:
Judicaël Mokolé is the Deputy Director of the Fondation Ahdieh in Bangui, Central African Republic (CAR), and has an academic background in organizational management and social economy. His work focuses community-level capacity-building to better support the education of children in the CAR. He also supports other organizations in Africa working in the field of education through community schools.
Elena Toukan holds a PhD in education and international development from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on the role of the community as a protagonist in education and development. Find more of her work on ResearchGate and Google Scholar.