Cape Town – GovChat, a citizen-government engagement technology platform, announced on Friday the launch of a school-readiness polling feature as schools reopen after months of lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The feature was launched in partnership with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and will be available from Monday.
Using their mobile devices, parents, pupils, teachers and community members will be able to provide first-hand, real-time experience of their school’s Covid-19 safety and readiness as contact learning is resumed.
According to GovChat, the poll will pay special attention to the inclusion of children with disabilities.
Furthermore, it will seek to understand the level of preparedness of mainstream, special and full-service schools to provide a safe environment and reasonably accommodate children with disabilities.
“The partnership with the SAHRC is important to us. It provides an opportunity for us all to understand what the lived experiences are from a school readiness point of view.
"Data-driven decision-making is what will help us curb the Covid-19 spread,” said GovChat founder and CEO Eldrid Jordaan.
Jordaan said GovChat has noticed that 28% of the service delivery requests during the Covid-19 period have been in relation to water disruption and water access, which is a critical component of fighting the spread of the coronavirus.
Jordaan added that understanding these challenges and the areas requiring rapid improvement is only possible through real-time data that citizens generate.
“We’re just trying to do our part,” added Jordaan.
The GovChat platform currently records 4 million monthly active users while processing more than 100 million messages monthly across its channels.
The poll will be available on the WhatsApp number 082 046 8553 and on Facebook Messenger https://www.facebook.com/govchat.org by adding GovChat and prompt “Help” .