Dzidzo Paden | Imfundwe’ndlini Platform set for a boost with more academic content for all learners

The increasingly popular WhatsApp chatbot Dzidzo Paden | Imfundwe'ndlini is set for a major boost as Zimbabwe's Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education in partnership with UNESCO are working on more e-content covering most learning areas across all grades and Forms.

Launched in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the initiative shared academic resources targeting learners sitting for final examinations at Grade 7, Form 4 and Form 6. For the past two weeks, selected teachers and curriculum specialists at the Curriculum Development and Technical Services Department have been working virtually through WhatsApp Groups to develop e-content for the platform.

For quality assurance and approval of the materials developed, the Ministry has organized a two-day face-to-face workshop from 17-18 September 2021 in Kwekwe to review and validate the materials. The Ministry has now targeted to cover 29 learning areas from junior primary to secondary school level, having initially focused on examination classes only. Learning areas include Guidance and Counselling and Life Skills Education, English, Mathematics, Geography, Information, Communication and Technology, History, Heritage and Social Studies, Family, Religion and Moral Education among others.

The review and validation meeting will bring together all the teachers who were involved in the e-content development for the selected learning areas, and specialist learning area resource personnel from the Curriculum Development and Technical Services (CDTS) for quality control and evaluation of the materials. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Mrs Tumisang Thabela and some of her senior management team members are expected to attend and officiate at the event.

A minimum of 4000 learning objects are expected to be validated, and ready for uploading on the Dzidzo Paden chatbot and other ministry platforms. The developed content is in line with the competency-based curriculum. This content will aid self -paced, distance or remote anytime anywhere learning and even enable learners to learn from home. The platform is a low-tech initiative, which is expected to benefit more than one million learners throughout the country. Making learning and teaching materials readily available to learners is part of the Ministry's catch up strategy to compensate for lost learning time due to COVID-19 related extended school closures. To date, the platform has an active user base of 64 400 learners.

Dzidzo Paden|Imfundwe'ndlini (Learning at Home) is a WhatsApp automated chatbot aimed at distributing premium academic resources to students with no access to the internet but who have access to WhatsApp. Currently, the chatbot is distributing curriculum-aligned resources (notes, past papers and mark schemes) for Grade 7s, Form 4s and Upper 6s.

To access the chatbot, Add +263787064484 to your contact list, Send 'Hi' on WhatsApp and Follow the steps that follow.