As of 25 March 2020, 165 countries have closed all their schools due to Covid-19, affecting nearly 1.5 billion learners and 63 million primary and secondary school teachers. This number is predicted to rise. The closures pose unprecedented challenges for education systems throughout the world.

The impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic has already affected children benefitting from The Book Bus projects in Zambia and Malawi. The highly successful Book Bus “I am a Reader” programme for primary school children in Zambia was paused on 20 March 2020, we will reinstate “I am a Reader” when the situation in Zambia is stable enough for activities to resume.

The Book Bus community library in Malawi is temporarily closed and ownership transferred to our local partner organisation Community Initiative for Self-Reliance (CISER). CISER will re-open the library when it is safe to do so and continue to provide the children of Maldeco access to its wonderful books in the future.

The Book Bus International volunteer programmes for child mentoring in 2020 and 2021 have been cancelled for now, the situation will be reviewed once the effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic within Zambia are clear.

The school closures have been sudden and because of this little attention has been given to providing distant learning facilities for children. Teachers now need adequate training on how to ensure the continuation of learning and how to develop relevant, high-quality distance education packages.

To meet these challenges, our response to the Covid-19 crisis we are developing new ways to deliver quality distance learning for teachers and learners alike. The Book Bus team in Zambia is working through the Ministry of Education to train teachers on how to adapt to new learning platforms and develop new strategies to engage their children. Book Bus staff have also been participating in and delivering other forms of education, for example communicating measures that prevent the spread of the virus, ensuring that children are safe and supported.

Revised activities whilst schools are closed

Our activities will support teachers in our project schools with training and resources to ensure children continue to read and learn during the current crisis, then re-join our project as soon as it is safe to do so. We will continue to monitor the current situation and in the mean time we have created an interim action plan as follows:

1. Teacher training: Continuous Professional Development – Teach 2030

The Book Bus have been appointed by the Commonwealth Education Trust as a facilitating partner of the Teach 2030 online Continual Professional Development programme for teachers in Zambia.

2. Distance learning for children: “The Book Bus reads” – a storytelling series for online sharing

Book Bus staff have been developing their story-telling and video production skills to create a series of storytelling videos that are available through The Book Bus Zambia YouTube channel.

3. Teacher training: Research and development of teacher training material

The Book Bus team in Kitwe are constantly researching and developing lesson plans and teaching sessions for children’s books that complement the school curriculum. This will put us in a much stronger position when “I am a Reader” resumes.

The Book Bus is working hard to continue supporting reading and changing lives throughout the Covid-19 crisis and we wish all of our staff, supporters and beneficiaries the very best during these times of uncertainty.