2 Dec '15

€2.3 million for internet education for sick pupils

Summary

The government of Flanders has given a funding boost to Bednet’s pilot project with pre-school age children who are too sick to go to class

 

Missing personal contacts

Flemish education minister Hilde Crevits has allocated a project subsidy of €2,339,000 to the non-profit organisation Bednet, doubling its current budget. Bednet provides sick children and student mothers the opportunity to follow classes via an internet connection, which allows them to interact with their teachers and fellow students in the classroom.

Bednet recently started trial projects specifically for five-year-olds because children at that age quickly accumulate a significant learning deficit if they are too sick to follow lessons. Illness also has a very strong influence on their emotional development, according to Bednet president Kathy Lindekens. “They are confronted with feelings of anger, anxiety, pain and sorrow much too early,” she said. “And at home, the children miss out on contact with their fellow students.”

The projects are meant to ascertain how Bednet tools can be used to help this target group to make a smooth transition to the first year of primary school. “The projects will provide important insights in how Bednet’s methods and devices can be used for sick pre-schoolers,” said Crevits, who yesterday  visited a Bednet project at the Vrije Basisschool Angelusinstituut in Brussels.

Photo courtesy Bednet.be

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