When it is meant to be…

As a small group of educators who are passionate about transformation through education, we continuously grapple with the same question – Are we making a difference?  The answer was a sad and despondent NO, not enough. Many hours were spent discussing what could be done differently to create a more results-driven, transformational education system. This became a dream that we plotted and planned around regularly. One day we will open our own place. One day there will be a safe place for those who do not fit in. One day the learning will be productive and results driven …. one day, one day, one day, one day. It was one of those dreams that you think about all day and eventually take to your grave. Just a dream, too big to fulfil.

Then without warning, the bombs were dropped.

Bomb 1 - Covid sent us all scurrying for cover. Schools were closed as the whole country went into lockdown. Eventually everyone started coming out of hibernation and schools opened in stages.

Bomb 2 - On the first day of the return to school, our school called a meeting to announce that they were closing permanently and with immediate effect!

Bomb 3 - Teachers would be without jobs and the students were left without a school.

…. And so, like the proverbial Phoenix rising from the ashes, our dream became a necessity and gave birth to en-Light-ed Learning Hub. It was a fight against time and systems to salvage what was looking to be a wasted year. The obstacles came at us relentlessly yet, somehow each one was overcome as we registered a company, found a way to maintain the IEB certification, set up students online and at our premises, found teachers and tutors who were willing to give hours of their time to help the students catch up a whole year, enlisted the help of an educational psychologist to help with the tremendous emotional backlash caused by the pressure and loss created by this untenable situation.  Everyone was thrown from catch-up to prelims to third term exams to portfolios being done from scratch as all previous work had disappeared with the school, and to final term four exams.

As I take what feels like my first real breath since the start of this remarkable journey, I am given an opportunity to ask the question again …. Are we making a difference?

This is a question I will continue to ask every day as we strive to provide the most meaningful and transformational education, the type of education that every child deserves.