Education in the time of covid19

DARCELLE DOODNATH

As we continue to battle the pandemic covid19 in TT, the issue of continued access to education for our students has emerged at the forefront of national debate. With the opening of the new school term possibly delayed even further – perhaps even until September – educators are now faced with the considerable challenge of delivering the curriculum remotely.

E-learning, through the use of webinars, online workshops and distance-learning courses, has been improved and gained popularity in recent years, but has always stood in the shadow of classes that are carried out face to face, arguably due to the elimination of social interaction and the more human aspect of the teaching and learning environment.

However, the available evidence and experiential accounts make it increasingly difficult to deny the potential benefits of technology integration and its positive impact on the engagement of students in learning. Nowadays, young children and adolescents alike are heavily dependent on their electronic devices, whether for communication – to stay constantly connected with their friends – or for entertainment (in particular meme-making, which seems to have become quite a national pastime over the past few weeks).

For teachers, the opportunity to use technology aligns with a commitment to improve student learning, modernise instructional delivery and hone digital literacy skills in students to contribute to their development as 21st century learners.

In light of the above, preparing content for dissemination via email, screencasting lessons for asynchronous sessions, scheduling online classes, sending instructions via messaging services or creating online collaborative platforms have now become the go-to strategies for teachers all over the world to communicate with their students and support their learning. Cue the era of the teacher influencer, who posts videos to YouTube, supplemented by a vibrant Instagram account and ideas on Pinterest for individual work.

Locally, the Ministry of Education has launched its online learning platform, the School Learning Management System which features resources for students at ECCE, primary and secondary levels. Other options include practice tests circulated by the print media, television programmes targeting examination preparation for the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) and even on-demand Cape and CSEC tutorials by a local cable television provider. Regionally, the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has created the CXC Learning Hub, which consolidates past papers and syllabi among other resources to facilitate continuous learning. Educators can create virtual classrooms and interact directly with their students, using the content available on the hub as well as their own personal content.

It goes without saying that teachers would be utilising their own personal resources, provided that they have their own devices and connectivity at home, to prepare materials for their students – a reality to which many have become accustomed. Teachers with families and other personal responsibilities must now juggle the demands of caring for their loved ones in a time of self-quarantining and social distancing, while planning lessons, posting material and creating online assessments.

With regard to strictly online learning, the severe disparity that exists between students with access to electronic devices and the Internet, and those without, means that we are in fact a long way from equity in education. At a press conference Tuesday, Minister in the Ministry of Education, Lovell Francis, noted that 60,000 students in TT do not have devices that will allow them access to the ministry’s e-learning platform. That’s nearly one quarter of the estimated 250,000 students in the country. And as time goes on, the inequalities in the standard of education delivery across schools in TT will become more apparent.

As for evidence to suggest that within the last month, students without access to the internet have fallen behind their more connected peers, gauging the progress of students from here on will prove difficult, taking into consideration differentiated learning styles and the current limitations of measuring student performance across a wide range of subjects demanding varying skills. Factors such as student motivation and parental engagement will no doubt impact on the level of student learning that takes place during this time.

A recent survey sent out by the Ministry of Education requesting information from teachers about provisions made for students to access learning materials for the two week period before the scheduled vacation time prompted condemnation from the teachers' union, TTUTA, which issued a statement that any initiative undertaken by teachers in the delivery of the curriculum during that time was purely voluntary. Some may argue that at the time schools were closed, students were set to write end of term examinations and therefore new content would not have been taught during the period, and that teachers are now rightfully entitled to their vacation time without public pressure to account for work done. The reality is that many teachers would have left behind their textbooks and other resources at their places of work when they went home on March 13, neither foreseeing the immediate closure of schools nor the necessity to implement online teaching.

Moving forward, this educational disruption can only be mitigated if teachers adapt, collaborate and make the shift to digital pedagogy for the benefit of students. In these unprecedented circumstances, the efforts of educators, administrators, parents and other stakeholders must be recognised and their initiatives supported, with a system put in place for adequately monitoring and evaluating learning outcomes, as well as the implementation of strategies to increase inclusivity throughout the extended period of time children are physically away from the classroom.

According to the World Bank, education leaders across Latin America and the Caribbean are learning from mass media education broadcasting used in the region, and since accessibility to the Internet is not guaranteed for all, educational radio and television still play a critical role. Emerging trends include the expansion of existing technologies, collating educational resources into one place, ensuring content is available offline, offering e-versions of textbooks and the deployment of public Wi-Fi access points. These are steps in the right direction to ensure continued learning for the thousands of students impacted.

Darcelle Doodnath is a Teacher III. She teaches Spanish at Naparima College.