Five Cowries art initiative launches e-learning platform to deepen SDG implementation

Nigeria’s social enterprise, Five Cowries Arts Education Initiative has launched an e-learning platform in line with Nigeria’s education curriculum to supplement the printed worksheets released in 2020.

The platform five cowries. online is a digital space that allows users, both young children and teachers to access learning materials online including the digital versions of worksheets that were released last year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected education for millions of students and, Five Cowries Arts Education Initiative is working tirelessly to innovate solutions to support home learning and serve the out of school students across the country. By introducing this digital learning platform, which complements the worksheets and the current curriculum, this project is leading the way in changing the narrative of education and teaching in Nigeria

The user- friendly platform has been built with funding from the International Relief Fund of the German Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe Institut as well as in conjunction with Alliance Francaise Nigeria, Goethe Institut and UNICEF.

According to the organisers, these strategic partners have been crucial in supporting this project as they have all contributed their relevant knowledge and expertise in ensuring that the platform is as inclusive as possible.

Charles Courdent, director of Alliance Française in Lagos said the Five Cowries Project has been the right response to the very strange times we are living in because of the pandemic.

To achieve this, Five Cowries Initiative has partnered with Alliance Francaise to translate the activities from English into several languages.

For Peter Hawkins, the UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, “The experiences of the last year have shown that young people and children needed to develop new ways of learning. The Five Cowries Arts Education Initiative has been working with educators in communities and homes to support the child’s learning experience by developing the creative soft skills needed for them to become effective young members of their community”

Speaking about the launch of five cowries. online, Friederike Möschel, director of the Goethe Institute noted that getting involved with art and culture opens your mind and makes you curious. It inspires your creativity and lets you see the world around you in a new way. Every child should get the possibility to experience this, no matter where he/she lives, and the Five Cowries Arts Education Initiatives provides the means for it.

The activities on the platform are keeping with Five Cowries Arts Education Initiative’s general goal, which is to enhance the quality of Nigeria’s education through the arts. The United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) champions creativity as a core skill for children and has maintained that creativity in learning encourages self- efficacy and solutions-oriented approaches in children.