Education In The Times Of A Pandemic

“I attend a federal university and it declared that the first semester of the year will be interrupted and doesn’t have a date to begin. I feel frustrated because it will delay my undergraduate course and my academic life…” lamented Susanne, a college student from Brazil. She has no idea when she will go back to college. There aren’t any online lessons being offered as not all students have the capabilities for virtual learning. This is the reality of just one student’s life. 

Covid-19 is a reality that is here to stay for sometime. Every human in some way or the other has been affected by this pandemic. One of the biggest casualties of this pandemic, other than ofcourse human lives, has been education. 

In an effort to stem the spread of the virus, schools across the world have been closed for a considerable amount of time. 

History of school closures

Looking back, even way back, there is no evidence of such widespread school closures. There have been small areas of school closures that were weather related, such as Katrina. The last time a pandemic forced school closures was in 1918 due to the Spanish Flu but even that was not as widespread as what we are seeing now. In that way, we are facing something unique. Countries that were the first to go under lockdown are now slowly reopening their schools but a majority remain closed.  

The extent of the impact on education, depends on the country of residence. 

For example, a student in the USA will probably lose out on the tail end of their academic year. A student in India probably just completed their academic year and was ready to begin their summer vacation. There are many concerns on how the assessments will be graded leading to uncertainty with college placements. If you are a student in South America, Covid struck in the middle of the academic year and hence you stand to lose out on most of the year, with no answers as to when schools or colleges will reopen. 

Learning During Lockdown

Most schools across the world shifted to virtual learning as soon as they could. Zoom and Google Meet became the popular medium of teaching for most schools and universities. Some countries chose to telecast daily lessons on TV, shared lessons on Whatsapp and broadcast lessons on the radio for students of all ages. UNESCO also put out some recommendations to countries on how to handle the education crisis.

Some guidelines that were recommended:

1. Examine the readiness and choose the most optional tools based on the reliability of local power supplies, internet connectivity, and digital skills of teachers and demography of the students. This could range from integrated digital learning platforms, video lessons, MOOCs, to broadcasting through radios and TVs.
2. Ensure inclusion of all students. Implement measures to ensure that students including those with disabilities or those from low-income backgrounds have access to distance learning programs, 
3. Protect data privacy and security to ensure that the use of applications and platforms does not violate students’ privacy.
4. Provide support to teachers and parents on the use of digital tools by offering training sessions for teachers and parents.
5. Define the duration of distance learning. Preferably, the sessions for primary school students should not be more than 20 minutes, and no longer than 40 minutes for secondary school students.

The guidelines were good on paper but difficult to implement. School districts even in developed countries faced challenges as they scrambled to develop an educational plan that would safely meet the needs of all students. As countries moved forward with closures, every dawning day presented a new set of challenges to be dealt with. 

Challenges amidst a lockdown

The school closures are temporary and hopefully short term but they come with  high social and economic costs. The disruptions Covid has caused can be felt across communities but the impact is more severe for disadvantaged children and their families, which includes interrupted learning, compromised nutrition, childcare problems and consequent economic costs to families that are out of work. The pandemic has exacerbated already existing disparities within the education system. UNESCO has highlighted many adverse scenarios that need to be considered that would result due to school closures.

• Interrupted learning: Schooling provides essential learning and when schools close, children and youth are deprived of opportunities for growth and development. The disadvantages are more serious for under-privileged learners who tend to have fewer educational opportunities beyond school.
• Poor nutrition: Many children and youth rely on free or discounted meals provided at schools for food and healthy nutrition. When schools close, nutrition is compromised.
• Confusion and stress for teachers: When schools close, especially unexpectedly and for unknown durations, teachers are often unsure of their obligations and how to maintain connections with students to support learning. Transitions to virtual learning platforms tend to be messy and frustrating, even in the best circumstances. In many contexts, school closures lead to furloughs or loss of jobs for teachers. 
• Parents unprepared for homeschooling: When schools close, parents are often asked to facilitate the learning of children at home and can struggle to perform this task. This is especially true for parents with limited education, language barriers and lack of resources.
• Gaps in childcare: In the absence of alternative options, working parents often leave children alone when schools close and this can lead to risky behaviours, including increased influence of peer pressure and substance abuse.
• Unintended strain on health-care systems: Health-care workers with children cannot easily attend work because of childcare obligations that result from school closures. This means that many medical professionals are not at the facilities where they are most needed during a health crisis.
• Rise in dropout rates: It will be a challenge to ensure children and youth return and stay in school when schools reopen after closures. This is especially true for families affected by economic shocks that place pressure on children to work and generate income for financially distressed families. Many students will also be unable to pay tuition for schools and may choose to take a break. 
• Increased exposure to violence and exploitation: When schools shut down, early marriages increase, more children are recruited into militias, sexual exploitation of girls and young women rises, teenage pregnancies become more common, and child labor grows.
• Social isolation: Schools are hubs of social activity and human interaction. When schools close, many children and youth miss out on social contact that is essential to learning and development. There are already cases of increasing anxiety and depression in students and families stemming from this forced isolation. 
• Challenges measuring and validating learning: Calendared assessments, notably high-stakes examinations that determine admission or advancement to new education levels and institutions, are thrown into disarray when schools close. Strategies to postpone, skip or administer examinations at a distance raise serious concerns about fairness, especially when access to learning becomes variable. Disruptions to assessments results in stress for students and their families, as there is an uncertainty about the future. 

Silver linings of this pandemic

This pandemic is an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and bring in some education reforms. This would be a good time for spring cleaning and discard past practices that were redundant. The existing education models in many countries were neither operating at an effective level nor were they serving all children fairly. This pandemic has revealed great disparities in children’s access to support, infrastructure and opportunities. Generally speaking, the most economically challenged in our society will be the most vulnerable in this crisis, and the most advantaged are most likely to survive it without losing too much ground. This could be our chance to tailor education to the needs of students, instead of the other way of fitting students into our predefined boxes. 

Education changed overnight. Schools and private online platforms came together to create a successful learning experience for students. Educators, parents, and students have discovered a new way of learning – learning anywhere, anytime is the new paradigm . 

It was truly wonderful to see how people put aside their differences during this pandemic to lend a helping hand to those in need. Learning consortiums, governments, publishers, technology providers, telecom network operators and businesses opened their doors to  provide free tools and resources for students. 

What to expect

There definitely will be setbacks and gaps in education. We can expect certain students to be unaffected by this, but there will be a vast number who will be greatly affected. Good news is that students are resilient and we can bridge the gap with highly effective teachers. Students who have had access to high-quality learning opportunities, whether it is formal schooling or informal homeschooling of some kind coupled with various enrichment opportunities will progress normally. Conversely, students with lack of support or resources will be at an enormous disadvantage. 

Paul Reville, a Harvard professor says, ‘Communities and school districts are going to have to adapt to get students on a level playing field. Otherwise, many students will continue to be at a huge disadvantage. We can see this playing out now as our lower-income and more heterogeneous school districts struggle over whether to proceed with online instruction when not everyone can access it. Shutting down should not be an option. We have to find some middle ground, and that means the state and local school districts are going to have to act urgently and nimbly to fill in the gaps in technology and internet access.’

According to the world economic forum ‘COVID-19 has demonstrated the importance of building resilience to face various threats, from pandemic disease to extremist violence to climate insecurity, and even, yes, rapid technological change.’

The Path Forward

It is clear that this pandemic has exposed a digital divide, resulting in some learning gaps. How do we fix this going forward? I used a survey to gather some facts from around the world. I spoke to educators, students and parents in countries of various socio-economic status. A parent from South Africa that I spoke to told me that he is unable to help his child with virtual learning because he is not highly educated and does not know english, which is the medium of education for his child. A few anxiety ridden students talked about missing out on social life and feeling depressed. Parents were concerned about how schools are going to handle reopening and ensuring the safety of everyone.

One important question that was asked on the survey was how they would like schools to handle the learning gaps that students will face due to these extenuating circumstances. Some responses are summarized  below:

• Shorten summer break
• Optimize and condense the curriculum so as to focus on important topics
• Remove or shorten vacations like spring break, winter break etc and use that time to reduce the gap
• Assign mandatory summer work for students
• Continue virtual school during summer
• Open school on Saturdays to bridge the gap

Not so surprisingly, most teachers are very positive and think that with a month of review, the students will be back on track. Teachers think that kids are resilient, they will bounce back and as for the older students, their classes are running, so it should not be a big problem. These teachers should be hailed as the new superheroes right after the healthcare professionals. Every teacher I know has gone above and beyond to service their students. They have embraced this new change and are trying their best to impart the best education possible under these trying circumstances. 

It is yet to be seen what new guidelines will be put in place when schools reopen. One thing everyone is sure of is that schools will not look the same anymore. This forced move to e-learning, could serve as the much needed catalyst to create a new and more effective method of teaching students.