No Learner Left Behind in Lockdown: UNICEF South Africa and the #Love2Learn Campaign
No learner is an island. And yet, because of the Covid-19 pandemic and a nationwide lockdown, schools have had to close, forcing children, parents, and teachers to adapt to a new way of ‘doing school’ from home. These changing times have created added pressure for learners, and being isolated can be demotivating. UNICEF South Africa aims to be ‘there for every child’ — whether at school or at home. Every child has the right to learn — and a global pandemic should not restrict children in South Africa from accessing this right.
No learner should be left behind because they don’t have access to their school environment. To assist these learners UNICEF South Africa launched the #Love2Learn Campaign on TikTok — the leading content creation platform for short-form mobile videos — in April 2020.
“TikTok is a platform that is dominated by youth culture in terms of usage, and while at home with not much else to do, they’re using TikTok far more — that is where their attention is. So if we are trying to encourage continuous learning, and want to make it fun, there is no better platform than TikTok. I look forward to being a part of the #Love2Learn campaign.” (Maps Maponyane, UNICEF Advocate, actor and TV personality)
Through this initiative, UNICEF South Africa began reaching the youth, right where they are, by encouraging them to share fun and creative videos of their experiences with home learning.
The campaign has now taken on a life of its own. The hashtag is still trending among TikTok users and, at the time of writing (May 2020), has over 20 million views.
But #Love2Learn gives them so much more than just a fun online platform:
#Love2Learn gives them community
In a time of lockdown, social media and content creation platforms, like TikTok, help people to stay connected. The #Love2Learn campaign gives learners the opportunity to connect with one another in exciting and innovative ways. This sense of community, with its focus on education, provides necessary home-schooling motivation.
#Love2Learn gives them inspiration
Learners motivate and encourage one another by sharing videos of their home learning, productivity tips, humorous scenarios, and more with other learners. Parents and teachers are also encouraged to join in, which allows them to share ideas and tips that can assist learners at home.
#Love2Learn gives them a voice
UNICEF South Africa has always been committed to giving children a voice and a future. Their voices should not be silenced because of home isolation. With these TikTok videos, learners are able to give expression to their ideas, frustrations, solutions, and tips, while sharing their home-school lives with fellow learners.
Creativity is essential to education and development. This campaign aimed to relieve some of the pressure associated with online learning and support learners in reaching their potential by giving them the platform to stay engaged in an entertaining way.
Watch some #Love2Learn videos:
For resources that can assist parents in the home-school environment, check out this ‘Learning from Home’ Material from UNICEF South Africa.
UNICEF South Africa promotes the rights of every child (For more on what we do, read here).
We rely on monthly pledge donations to reach the needs of South African children on a sustainable basis.
Even during lockdown and isolation, it takes a village to raise a child and UNICEF South Africa is intentionally proactive in finding ways to impact children wherever they are.
