Bridge Introduces Online Homeschooling Platform

Funmi Ogundare

Bridge International Academies (Bridge) has introduced an online remote learning platform, Bridge@Home which enables pupils to learn from resources shared via social media platforms and downloaded from its website while at home.
The platform, which provides daily reading practice, learning guides and activity sheets for all classes for parents and caregivers, will ensure that their children can continue to learn.

The activities are specific for all nursery and primary grade levels so what parents need to do is to access the right materials for their children.
Speaking on the homeschooling initiative, the Director of Academics at Bridge Nigeria, Rhoda Odigboh said it is important that children continue to learn and grow until schools reopen which is why Bridge is supporting families and making sure that learning is disrupted as little as possible.

She said each day, pupils are provided with a learning guide for parents and pupils to follow and complete the learning activities for every subject, daily reading practice of story download from the African storybook app, daily homework assignment with the answer key for parents and caregivers to review answers and provide feedback, adding that the materials follow the Nigerian curriculum and are what children would be learning if they were in the classroom

“It is our alternative source of schooling while schools remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic”
Parents at Bridge have also reacted to the online learning platform, Mrs. Ojo Adeola from Bridge Academy, Oloto Ring Road in Ojo said the Bridge@Home initiative has kept her son busy all through the COVID-19 lockdown.

She said her son does his homework as he would have done on a normal school day and she has had a great time monitoring his work. On the daily reading practice, she said, “I end up reading each story like 10 times because he keeps asking me to read it again.”
Another parent, Mrs. Bello said the lockdown has made her an emergency teacher at home and she now appreciates better, the role teachers play in the development of children.

According to Bello, her four- year-old daughter really enjoys the story reading practice.
“To the teachers, thank you for the great work you have been doing to keep our children learning,” she said.
Education activities have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Research by UNESCO revealed that about 1.723 billion learners have been affected by coronavirus-induced closures that saw about 191 countries implementing nationwide closures and local closures, impacting thereby on 98.4 per cent of the world’s student population. In this regard, UNESCO recommended the use of open educational applications and platforms to reach learners without much disruption of education.
The Bridge@Home learning platform is available to all parents in Nigeria and children can benefit from the daily lessons whether they attend a Bridge school or not.