The Covid-19 lockdown has completely disrupted the 2020 academic year, forcing parents to confront a daunting, overwhelming, frightening, panic-inducing task head-on: home schooling. By all accounts — and from what people have been posting on social media — it’s a nightmare from which most moms and dads wish they could wake.

But here we are ... this is the reality we find ourselves in.

Educating our children has been something most of us happily hand over to others — to those more experienced, more willing, those with a “calling”. Right now, it’s a responsibility we’ll have to accept because our children need our support more than ever to tackle the coming months.

How on Earth do we get enthusiastic about it? How are we going to find the time? How are we going to do it right? How are we not going to let our children down?

With so many of us are faced with this dilemma, Sowetan editor Nwabisa Makunga is inviting parents and caregivers to join her in an online discussion with professionals in the field of primary and high school education — educational psychologists and teachers — to guide us in how to successfully and joyously get our children through the academic year.

The online panel will include Deon Swarts (educational psychologist), Thina Maqubela (lecturer and social entrepreneur from Maqubs Academy of Excellence, which provides tutoring services and academic support), and Gugu Ntuli (group executive of corporate affairs and marketing at the SABC.)