The Hantam Community Education Trust Lockdown report as at 6 April 2020

We do indeed find ourselves in extraordinary and stressful times. There is so much uncertainty, especially if the lockdown is extended.

How are we facing the challenges that this imposes on the work of the trust and all its beneficiaries:

The school, ECD and Effective Parenting Programme are all on lockdown. This is very worrying for us as our children are not able to work online, should the lockdown be prolonged the challenge of catching up is even greater. It is extremely challenging for many of the students to work from homes where parents are not literate. Where we are able, we have encouraged farms and older literate siblings to play a supportive role, concentrating only on Maths and English. Our library is accessible on Wednesday mornings, (when the clinic is open) books can be taken out by the parents and children. Our greatest concern is for the children who attend the Trust school from town. The reality is when schools re-open, many of the town parents will be unable to pay for their children’s transport; our fear is that these children could well drop out of school.