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Flora Fadzai Sibanda

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When one thinks of Bubi or Nkayi, the most prominent thought that comes to their mind is the bad dusty roads.

People also picture children tending livestock and not in classrooms during lessons. 

Some would argue that the classroom will probably be half-full as a lot of children bunk lessons as a result of the long distances they have to walk to get to school.

However, this was not the case when a Chronicle news crew arrived at the state-of-the-art Tame Primary School in Bubi District.

It is not only attractive, but education centred as well.

In the classrooms, Information Communication Technology centred education is taking place, much to the benefit of the pupils.

Pupils in the Grade 7 class sat in groups as they followed a tutorial lesson on their tablets.

The learners all seemed familiar with the operations of a digital library rolled out by the Community Action to Achieve Prosperity (CAAP) Trust to various rural schools accross the country.

The digital library, which can be accessed without internet data is part of CAAP’s key strategy to ensure rural schools get the same education as those in urban areas.

The digital platform known as RACHEL or Bridge Pie allows pupils from remote areas like Bubi, Umzingwane and Nkayi to access virtual books without using internet data using a link that is made accessible through routers which are distributed at the schools.

The routers, which work with a memory card, allow teachers to upload different textbooks on the syllabus starting from the infants stage. The routers also allow teachers to prerecord lessons for future use.

The digital platform also offers instructional tutorials on Science, Mathematics, and coding lessons which are also accesible for free.

While busy monitoring the pupils, the ICT teacher at the school only identified as Mr Maka said the digital library is safe for use by learners.

He said over 5 000 learners can access the library at once on their tablets and since it was launched, they do not have to worry about missing lessons when there are sports or administrative issues which they need to take care of as it allows them to prerecord lessons and play them when they are unavailable.

“Apart from the educational advantages it carries, it is also a good way of ensuring that there is no gap between children from the rural areas and those from urban areas. By giving them access to this digital library, its almost as if they are being given a chance to Google online whatever it is that they are writing and thus being taught how to use the internet. Also, the library has infantry animation for the early childhood development classes. CAAP really helped us a lot because had it not been for them and the ministry that gave us tablets, most of our learners would have dropped out after Covid-19 because of pregnancy,” said Mr Maka.

In Nkayi at Guwe High School, the Advanced Level learners said Bridge Pie helped them pass their O-Level examinations as they would go to school during Covid-19 restrictions and sit by the classrooms while social distancing in order to access the books and past examination papers that are stored in the digital library.

One of the learners, Sithokozile Ndlovu, said the digital library is very helpful because buying personal textbooks is sometimes expensive and the school only has a few textbooks which they need to share.

She said when she was preparing for her O-Level examinations, she would go to the school in the morning and spend the whole afternoon at the school premises trying to read and take screenshots of some of the textbooks so she could read the rest when she got home.

“The only disadvantage that this digital library has is that it needs smartphones and if you can’t afford one it means you can’t access it. Another downfall is that once one leaves the school premises, the signal is lost, and because we walk long distances going home, we prefer leaving the school premises early so you might end up leaving without fully reading,” said Sithokozile.

Another learner, Ayanda Ndlovu, said the library was user friendly and easy to navigate.

She said because of the library, reading has been made easier for her and her classmates as they now have access to almost all the books needed for them to prepare for exams.

“Bridge Pie helped us a lot in ensuring that we pass our exams because we were coming from Covid-19 and with the shortage of textbooks, catching up would have been hard. I love how its also accessible without using any internet data because that would have been expensive for some of us,” she said.

In a interview, the co-founder of CAAP Mr Mthokozisi Moyo said the digital library was launched in 2020 when Covid-19 hit the country.

He said just like everyone else, children from rural areas were incapacitated and could not access lessons.

Realising how difficult it was to motivate examination classes, Mr Moyo said his organisation launched the digital library and introduced RACHEL and bridge pie to schools in marginalised areas.

“One of our biggest motives is to ensure that children in rural areas are also bridged into the modern and digital world. We are happy the Government is also priotising this because there are some schools in the region where we operate like Tame Primay School which has tablets they got from the Government so it became easy for us to introduce this library and ensure that students are able to use it,” said Mr Moyo.

He said they got router parts from South Africa which cost over US$400.

After acquiring the parts, he said, the organisation worked with the beneficiaries to get the routers working.

Mr Moyo said the digital library does not require an internet connection, which is ideal for pupils in rural schools as they can access the books from wherever they will be.

“I am happy students and teachers are warming up to the idea and even after Covid-19, they still continue utilsing it, which shows how efficient it is for the students and the teachers,” said Mr Moyo. — flora_sibanda