The education of hundreds of millions of children in the world is at high risk of collapsing due to the outbreak of COVID-19 Pandemic that has interrupted the educational system and led to school closures across the world making it difficult for many countries to find alternative ways to provide continued education, resulting in many children dropping out of school due to lack of COVID-19 vaccines and lack of digital connectivity jeopardizing access to schooling.
The current pandemic has forced most governments around the world to temporarily close educational institutions in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), impacting over 91% of the world’s student population according to UNESCO. Uganda, amidst its economic challenges, the unforeseen situation of the COVID-19 pandemic is another turn of the screw in the education situation of its school-going age population.
According to BaNgaAfayo Initiative Uganda’s new analysis, It is estimated that 80% of the children in Kayunga district are at high risk of not returning to school due to economic impacts of COVID-19. Parents may pull children out of school to work, or they may be forced into early child marriage and this is because majority of them come from highly rural, indigenous communities.
BaNgaAfayo believes that all children deserve and have a right to access equal and quality educational opportunities and stay in schools as their peers in urban centers regardless of their economic status, background, religious beliefs and culture, and that is why BaNgaAfayo Initiative Uganda came up with Magical Classroom Program that is non-discriminating.
BaNgaAfayo’s Magical Classrooms program aims to achieve this equality by providing access to high-quality early childhood education as a seed of opportunity that allows all children to grow and thrive. Our magical classrooms focus on pre-primary education which addresses the problem at the root cause and prepares children to not only attend school, but stay in school and succeed once they reach the primary level.
Unlike the Ugandan Government Educational programs that focus on increasing access to only primary and secondary education and less focus on pre-primary education, especially in rural areas yet its the most important stage where children learn how to read, write and also get numeracy skills and this is what these children are going to get from the Magical Classroom program.
BaNgaAfayo in partnership with relevant stakeholders, identifies local young women (typically between 16-24 years old) in rural communities who are bilingual and possess leadership potential, a spirit for community development and have passion for working with children aged 1-6 years, receive a 2 months intensive introductory training in ECD education before they set off to work in their own communities as ECD facilitators using the Magical Classroom guided curriculum.
