Last November 2021, Save the Children, a leading humanitarian organization for children in need, revealed that up to one in five children in fragile countries, including Uganda, had dropped out of school because of rising poverty, child marriage, and child labor, which the pandemic has exacerbated. The agency is now warning of a ‘second wave’ of dropouts as returning students who have fallen behind in their learning fear they have no chance of catching up. To tackle the learning crisis in Uganda, Save the Children has launched Catch-up Clubs – an innovative approach to accelerate the recovery of lost learning during the pandemic and help children successfully return to school. The clubs assess children and teach them at the required level to help them regain literacy and other learning skills, with child protection support and cash assistance for families struggling to send them to school. Despite efforts to provide remote learning, many children were unable to access online lessons during the pandemic because they don’t have a computer or have poor Internet connection. Catch-up Clubs are specifically aimed at children falling behind in Grades 3-5, when their learning can be relatively and easily accelerated. Edison Nsubuga, Head of Education at Save the Children in Uganda, said: “The Catch-up Clubs program is a holistic approach to education that benefits all levels of the community. The clubs have been a lifeline for many children in Uganda, while the majority of schools remained closed for nearly two years. Without the clubs, some of these children may not be returning to school today.” Save the Children also plans to launch Catch-up Clubs in Myanmar, Malawi, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria in the coming months, with more countries to follow in an effort to reach over a million children by the end of 2022.  

Source: Save the Children International