PILLAR SCHOOL IS LEADING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN ZIMBABWEAN SCHOOLS
The Pillar Junior School is progressive and creating strong foundational learning, in order to give children a head start. This builds academic confidence at a young age, paving the way for students to become future leaders in their community. Through the OURS Programme, students from Vega and Inscape in Cape Town were able to participate in the design and build of Phase 1 of the school in 2018, for the students in Bulawayo. Through this project students were able to gain relevant work experience and work across disciplines, across ages and across boarders.
The year 2020 brought about its own challenges. Like every other school in the world, Pillar was forced to reimagine education in a global pandemic. However, COVID19 didn't just affect schools, it disrupted all modes of learning, work and community engagements. It is at this pivotal moment that OURS moved their business online by building an Online Community Platform to host their Programme for Creative Entrepreneurs and also leverage on the digital space to host other educational programmes and communities who are struggling to digitally transform their organizations and operate during the pandemic without the necessary technical tools. Fortunately, for their existing clients, like Pillar, they were able to leverage on this new solution on offer.
Website : https://www.pillarschools.com/
Since joining OUR Space, The Pillar School has grown organically from 50 to 170 members in the space of a few months. And with the re-opening of schools -with the easing of lockdown regulations- The Pillar School is entering into Phase 2 of development in order to house the growth of their student body. Parents have insisted on the adoption of the platform as part of a blended learning strategy for the school based on the benefits they've seen with its use during the pandemic. These benefits include tracking their children's academic progress and homework submissions and being able to engage directly with teachers on the platform. Schools are also able to process/track payments more efficiently on the platform and manage/share their resources via the digital library.
Digital transformation is as an essential resource in order for institutions and business to stay competitive and it provides a lean method to start and scale a business. The Pillar School Story acts as a beacon of hope that if a small ECD in Zimbabwe can lead digital transformation in education, then anyone can.
Website : https://www.pillarschools.com/