AS Guyana continues to contend with the effects of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the Rotary Club of Stabroek, with support from ExxonMobil and Brainstreet, has launched phase two of its online learning platform, Brain Central, to ensure that children have access to reading materials.

According to the club’s president, Carlotta Walcott, the idea behind the initiative is to provide a platform for learners who may not have access to other methods of learning due to the pandemic.

The platform, according to Walcott, affords children the opportunity to access learning materials with or without internet access.

She said that one of the major issues children have been facing, while trying to learn during the pandemic, is little to no access to internet.

Considering this issue, Brain Central has been tailored to provide learning materials to children in grades three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine.

“The interest was really to reach learners who didn’t have access, and this went on way into the hinterland communities.

“At this stage, we are developing additional local community Wi-Fi networks to give learners access to the academic material on a localised version of Brain Central. The teachers in the village will also be trained to develop and deliver lessons via the local platform,” Walcott related.

She said that several hinterland communities, including Paramakatoi in Region Eight and Yupukari in Region Nine, are also set to benefit from the initiative.

A major selling point of the platform is that it also allows the users to download the materials and save their answers offline, which could then be accessed by the teachers trained to use the software.

“A key feature of the application is that the entire course can be downloaded onto a device… that is very critical because it means you don’t need Wi-Fi access and all of that. You can have it on your device and the learners would have immediate access to the resources,” Walcott said.

She related that the club intends to have the Ministry of Education’s resources available on the website for the learners to access.