Verite Primary School in Kariega again participated in the annual GrowSmart literacy project and this time, owing to COVID-19 pandemic, the tasks were online and participating schools were supplied with tablets.
According to educator Carmen Gertze who is in charge of the project at Verite, five learners (Asemahle Sokupa, Asive Jafta, Tammy-Lee Marais, Qulynn Daniels and Aphelele Nyanda) entered the Literacy Section with three learners (Esona Tu, Nadine de Boer and Lorihetta Smith) who entered in the Creative Writing Section.
GrowSmart is an initiative by GrowthPoint Properties in collaboration with the Eastern Cape Department of Education.
“Hence the competition being online, each school received a School-in-a-Box complete kit consisting of all the information technology needed to operate the tablets from school,” said Gertze.
“The learners were very excited and eager to learn the new technological skills and easily adapted to how the tasks had to be done. They had to access the learning material from the tablets to prepare for competition days.
“The learners even sacrificed their break time and have put in time after school to prepare for competition days,” said Gertze.
Qulynn Daniels received 80% in her Level 2 round and competed in the semi-finals. She is waiting to hear whether she will be progressing to the finals.
In the Creative Writing Section, Lorihetta Smith choose to do the creative option of submitting poems that she wrote during the pandemic. Gertze said she was exceptionally proud of the learners.
