UNESCO will be supporting the Department of Curriculum and Technical Services (CDTS) to develop e-learning material for uploading and sharing with learners on the Dzidzo Paden WhatsApp chatbot, a Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) approved education material dissemination platform.
Dzidzo Paden|Imfundwe’ndlini is a WhatsApp automated chatbot aimed at distributing premium academic resources to students with no access to the internet but who have access to WhatsApp. Currently, the chatbot is distributing curriculum aligned resources (notes, past papers and mark schemes) for Grade 7s, Form 4s and Upper 6s.
Having initially focussed on materials for examination classes, the initiative will now cover a total of 29 learning areas from junior to secondary education, including Guidance and Counselling and Life Skills Education, English, Mathematics, Geography, Information, Communication and Technology, History, Heritage and Social Studies, Family, Religion and Moral Education among others.
The development process will use blended approach, as a cost effective measure to maximize production of the content. There will be virtual development for 14 days since the technical development team is scattered around the ten learning provinces within the country. This will be followed by a two day face to face meeting, bringing together all the teachers for the selected learning areas, and specialist learning area resource personnel from the CDTS for quality control and evaluation of the materials. Thereafter, the teams will work for another 7 days virtually, incorporating the feedback from the face to face workshop and submit their materials.
During this 22 days period a minimum of 4000 learning objects will be developed, and ready for uploading on the Dzidzo Paden chatbot and other ministry platforms. The developed content will be in line with the competency based curriculum. This content will aid self -paced, distance or remote anytime anywhere learning and even enable learners to learn from home. The platform is a low tech initiative which is expected to benefit more than 1 million learners throughout the country.