Building on 6 years of collaboration with the HospitalSchool Foundation, we’ve taken an active role in educating the children of healthcare workers since schools closed due to COVID-19. Under the “I Teach Online” program, volunteering university students helped children study in the online space. The Foundation provided the professional background, and we contributed teaching recommendations and Hipernet access to the children of 120 healthcare workers. When the lockdown started, an unprecedented collaboration began involving companies, volunteers, educational and healthcare institutions.
Partnership for education during the pandemic
Project owner: Telenor Magyarország Zrt. (Telenor Hungary)
Responsible person: Anett Gulyás
2021
2,000 Euro Prize
HU
Commercial enterprise
Education
What is it about?
Challenge
COVID-19 changed education fundamentally. Access to technologies and the Internet needed to attend distance learning courses were not available for many families. The sudden closing of schools created a new, challenging situation for teachers, pupils, and parents, especially those working in healthcare.
Idea
As schools closed due to COVID-19, we opened our programme to help overburdened healthcare workers home-school their children. Children in the programme are taught online by volunteer university students.
Actors
We immediately responded to the new situation by focusing on healthcare workers and their children, a target group heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, student volunteers used creative methods and innovative solutions to teach their online pupils. The volunteers gained experience and skills in collaboration, teamwork, creativity, problem-solving, and asserting themselves.
Impact
During the first 13 weeks of the pandemic, we supported 219 children of 87 healthcare workers. 363 student volunteers and 30 volunteers delivered over 3,000 online classes. The HospitalSchool Foundation provides professional assistance. Telenor contributes teaching recommendations and their speciality Internet access to the children of 120 healthcare workers.
Transfer
The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic also shed light on a new target group, children with chronic illnesses who use digital education due to their disability. We launched the “I Study Online” programme to support them in September 2020.
Appreciation of the Jury
After years of supporting pupils with long-term illnesses, Partnership for education during the pandemic was created and adapted through a socially innovative approach to support a different target group: Volunteers supervise and support children of health workers with their schoolwork in online classes. The project also provides Internet access and the technologies needed for distance learning. The project’s fast and efficient response allows parents to continue their much-needed work in hospitals and healthcare facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
