Managing Monday's return to online schooling

At the commissioning of two new school buildings at St Augustine Girls’ High School (SAGHS) on Monday, Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, was proud of her alma mater and stated her support for school experiences in shaping the character and the ensuing lives of children.

"My appreciation of pan, my PhD in chemistry, my discipline, all came from Mrs Beckles," Dr Gadsby-Dolly said.

The Education Minister is stuck between a rock and a hard place, clearly yearning for a return to bricks-and-mortar education while grappling with the reality that for almost all students, education will continue on Monday in their homes.

Teachers must continue to manage the challenges of schooling their students remotely, while their charges, with varying success, continue to adjust.

There are thousands of secondary-school students who will enter a new school for the first time this term without the experience of actually entering a new building.

Thousands more will begin form two without experiencing the same physical transition.

There's nothing to be done now about that loss, and pining for in-person education doesn't help.

There is, however, an urgent need for more to be done to support students who are still unable to connect to online classes and teachers who continue to be challenged to deliver classroom pedagogy designed for in-person learning as effective online coaching.

Dr Gadsby-Dolly might want students back out to school, but more tangible emphasis must be placed on improving their learning experience right now.

In March 2020, the impact of the pandemic was unforeseeable. Nobody could have imagined a year and a half of school closures.

Nineteen months in, Dr Gadsby-Dolly must be aware that with lagging vaccination rates and looming variants of concern, preparations for bolder and more tangible improvements in the management and practice of remote learning should be further advanced than they are.

Hardest hit under covid19 are preschoolers who have lost out on critical learning opportunities, and socialisation experiences that would have shaped their entry into the school system.

The impact on students across age ranges, too, in low-income households will be disastrous.

The Education Ministry should be reporting on the tangible changes and adaptations it will introduce to this new semester of school. It should be acting decisively on its records of students who remain outside the online education system and more clearly addressing those shortfalls. How many, for instance, still do not have electronic devices to access online classes?

The ministry's silence on these matters does not inspire confidence.

Those of this country's children who are left marginal, struggling or lost to the education system, must not be forgotten. Whatever trauma they undergo now will have wide-ranging consequences, sooner or later, for the entire population.