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#BTColumn – What will 25 per cent equal to in 3 Years?

by Barbados Today
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

Thirty-two students packed into a classroom is a nightmare that COVID has fortunately forced schools to wake up from.

The Age of Sardines, is over. And with it, the years of ‘Lost Boys and Girls’ living in a ‘Neverland’ of underachievement, driven by inadequate attention to individual needs, within an antiquated system.

Except it hasn’t. The solution of how to protect our children physically has created a far more dangerous problem: impeding them academically.

Now we discover, that some Form 1 to 3 students, may have contact teaching on five alternate days over two weeks and will be solely ‘learning online’ for the next two weeks.

The question begs: what will twenty-five percent of contact teaching equal to in three years? Certainly not three years of Curriculum being adequately covered. Certainly not impactful learning and meaningful academic progress.

Students teaching themselves for two weeks? Let’s be realistic: what percentage of students, at thirteen years old, are able to work independently on NEW material, while being online, without restriction (and probably low supervision), while self-regulating to stay on task, without being distracted by pleasurable alternatives?

We better pray that COVID disappears by 2021, or an unknown number of students will not be prepared for Form 4 entry, having attended 25 per cent classes in person for the previous three years.

Sending students work to do by email, course management systems or ‘study packages’ for independent completion will fail. Dismally.

This is basically a national disaster in the making.

A short-term solution to a problem of unknown duration which will have long-term ramifications.

Obviously, we need more teachers, teaching and more facilities to accommodate students. Or we have to get really smart with Technology, REALLY QUICKLY. Like, yesterday.

The whole community must get involved to solve this crisis; it’s time we collectively stepped up to the plate.

Research indicates that many countries have created proactive, positive and practical options. We do not have to reinvent the wheel. Argentina is a brilliant example, having shifted gears way before April 2020.

Argentina’s Education Portal is “aimed at providing curated digital resources for teachers, administrators, students and families. The program “Seguimos Educando” developed by the Ministry of Education and the Secretariat of Media and Public Communication, began broadcasting educational content from April 1, 2020. It airs 14 hours a day of television content and 7 hours a day of radio content specially produced for students; each lesson broadcast will have the presence of a teacher and a conductor (journalist, artist, scientist), broadcasting 7 programs daily of 1 hour each.”

“To ensure that this school closure does not exacerbate inequity in access to these learning resources, telephone companies have guaranteed that browsing the digital platform will be free of charge, it will not consume data.”

Are either of our telecommunication providers similarly stepping up?

Browse the website: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/edutech/brief/how-countries-are-using- edtech-to-support-remote-learning-during-the-covid-19-pandemic. Barbados is absent from the list.

Two things are obvious when you read other countries’ action plans.

First, an incredibly swift response was made at the START of the pandemic, when the writing was clearly on the wall, so that this academic year was prepared for. Critical decisions were made early by a central authority.

Secondly, administration, supervision and creative production have been in progress for months.

To leave solutions of this magnitude up to school principals (in September) is begging for proverbial bandages to be used, when surgery is the only option for this current situation.

And then, when our Minister of Education calls a meeting of teachers, there is objection and 10 per cent of the teachers employed by the government show up. We are a ‘house (of egos) divided’.

This country is NOT READY for the coming Academic Year. Not by a long shot.

I am hoping that plans are in the works. If they are, why are they secret and why is the public not being constantly updated as to objectives, progress and timeline?

We need the smallest glimmer of hope that our children will not be left even further behind. Last term ranged from disappointment to failure.

There’s been an apparently successful drive to provide technology to every student who needs it, but this does not guarantee that they use it as intended. Who is checking this? Is there a system in place to ensure that students log on? What happens when they don’t? Where does the accountability lie? Eleven year olds should not be alone at home all day. Are the private and public sectors on board and ready when parents must take their children to work with them?

The logistics of the situation we are in are multi-faceted and require definitive, appropriate, wide-ranging and effective communication, collaboration, actioning and management.

The solutions just do not seem to be ahead of the curve and COVID has been around for over six months! So, now at the eleventh hour, we are ‘mekking do’, still ‘argy-bargying’ (in many areas and in many ways), deliberating and waiting for ‘someone’ to decide on a solution, and create it for all to use.

Would someone please communicate the truth of what is actually going on?

Julia Hanschell can be contacted at smartstudying@gmail.com

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