Awarenet – a non profit organisation which runs two computer labs at the Joza Youth Hub – has since level 3 on the 1st of June invited selected group of high school learners to its computer labs. In order to enter they have to be screened for Covid-19, have their temperatures checked and wear masks and adhere to social distancing at all times while at the Joza Youth Hub.
The decision to reopen was based on the lack of learning and lack of access to learning materials for some of our learners. Most of our high school learners are currently not back at school and are therefore struggling to keep up with the curriculum. We therefore tutor our core group learners every day from Monday to Saturday with the help of online and offline resources at the computer lab. Through the use of these resources we have designed our own curriculum for additional support from the learning they get at school.
There are lots of sites on the internet where you can keep yourself busy learning even if your school is closed. Many of the sites have content directly related to the South African CAPS curriculum. Some are also zero-rated, meaning they can be accessed for free on some (but unfortunately not all) mobile networks. Below you find some of the favourite sites of the awarenet team:
- siyavula.com (zero-rated) This great South African site lets you do work and tells you if you are right or wrong immediately! It has interactive exercises in maths grade 8 -12 and science grade 10 -12. It also has complete digital CAPS textbooks for these and other grades.
- learn.mindset.africa (zero-rated) This site is like entering a digital classroom; it has videos on most high school subjects with a focus on grade 10-12
- https://www.sahistory.org.za/history-classroom (not zero-rated): The classroom section of this history buff site offers lots of resources on South African and World History. It links directly with topics in the History and Social Science curriculum from grade 4 to 12.
- http://www.thunderboltkids.co.za (zero-rated): On this site you can both read comics and do fun learning exercises in natural science and technology! It has content in English and Afrikaans for learners in grade 4-6.
- www.khanacademy.org (zero-rated) Khan academy has videos for all subjects designed for every pupil in every grade in the whole world!
- https://xh.khanacademy.org/ : (zero-rated) Maths can be explained well in isiXhosa too! This isiXhosa version of Khan academy has lots of videos about maths explained in isiXhosa
