“Lots of work coming but sometimes I can’t explain it to her and then I have to work and when I come home in the evenings, I’m too tired. So when the work bank up is hard for her to do and I don’t know if she’s getting anything at all. You have the workbook and the work coming and going but no learning, sometimes I don’t know what to do, ”a frustrated mother of four told me recently.
She was referring to her first grader who, like many other children, had not completed her nursery education before the pandemic came and closed school doors last March. Her introduction to primary education is almost done and for this mother, and I’m sure many others, it’s difficult. The child has never seen her class teacher or heard her voice. Her mother and to a lesser extent her older siblings who have been helping her navigate primary education, none have been trained to do so.