SDG Book Club International Literacy Day - Beehive School

In commemoration of International Literacy Day, the SDG Book Club African Chapter asked its Ambassador Schools to reflect on the importance of literacy, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and how children are adapting to the 'new normal'. In addition to this video, you can also read the following blog entry submitted by the Beehive School in Lagos, Nigeria.

My experiences administering the International Literacy Day survey questions to the children.

The news that they were being invited to share about their learning experiences during the Covid-19 lockdown came with some well-expressed excitements from the children. Their responses to the questions asked were both spontaneous and exuded confidence. Their responses were factual and realistic. There was close to 100% consensus most of them preferred physical classes to virtual lessons and they were not shy to admit it. As Chinemerem Oparah, an 8 year old pupil put it, “Virtual learning was not effective enough as it brought about laziness and a lackadaisical attitude to our tasks. For virtual learning you can’t drive to our houses and force us to do our work. It would be safe to say that while our pupils were grateful to be engaged during the lockdown, they were very excited to have returned to physical classes.

As teachers, we have had our own experiences with both virtual and physical forms of learning. While we have our own thoughts about the duo, getting a feedback from these young ones really made a difference in our approach to teaching and learning. We believe that literacy will achieve an interesting peak in Africa in a few years.

- Mrs Iwuchukwu Chiamaka, English Teacher