UWI: September school reopening needs to be more inclusive

THE reopening of schools in September needs to be more inclusive of students marginalised during six months of lockdown, lecturer at the UWI School of Education Dr Elna Carrington-Blaides said.

She spoke during a webinar hosted by the university on Wednesday to discuss post-pandemic strategies to improve the school system.

Carrington-Blaides said schools need to be more mindful of supporting the “whole child,” developing their “interpersonal and communication skills, reasoning and critical thinking, cognitive skills, independent and self-regulation skills,” rather than focusing purely on academics.

She said that given the length of time students have been at home, addressing learning loss is also important. She said educators needed to address these critical learning gaps and develop individualised education plans for students.

She said, policy reform is also needed, especially in the event of another lockdown, to plan for continuity of assistive services including technological assistance. She said educators and administrators should also “track and follow up on children at risk of dropping out.”

Blaides referred to other countries who have already reopened which can be used as examples for TT to follow.

“In Vietnam, the United Nations International Children’s Fund (Unicef) is making educational resources available in minority languages and sign language. It is also supporting home visits to children with disabilities to ensure they continue learning.”

She also referenced Indonesia which is supporting development of offline learning materials and broadcasting programmes to facilitate home-based learning among disadvantaged children who are not benefiting from online learning.

In China, Unicef surveyed children and parents to understand their needs before going back out to a new school environment.

“The results were used to create a communication campaign to address the psychosocial concerns.”