Barbados and several other countries in the region came close to receiving a failing grade from the Caribbean’s main child protection and development partner, UNICEF, as there continues to be a delay to the return of face-to-face learning.
This comes as a new study has found that most students and teachers in at least eight Caribbean countries were struggling with the current online modality and they, along with parents, preferred a return to the face-to-face method.
The survey was presented on Thursday morning during a virtual UNICEF media briefing to present the findings of a Rapid Assessment of the Effectiveness of Communication Interventions for the Safe Reopening of Schools report.
The study, which was carried out in November last year and again between January and February this year, received feedback from close to 3,000 students and 554 teachers from primary and secondary schools, and 728 parents from Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Dr Aloys Kamuragiye, UNICEF Representative for the Eastern Caribbean, acknowledged that while there were some efforts across countries to return to the physical classroom, more effort was needed.
He warned that on average, students in Latin America and the Caribbean have already lost four times the number of days (about 174 days) of schooling since the start of the pandemic, when compared to the rest of the world.
Dr Kamuragiye said “To prevent the most vulnerable children from falling behind, governments and parents must scale up home learning options including the provision of electronic devices and internet access to the most disadvantaged children.
“More importantly, children must safely return to school as soon as is feasible,” he said, adding that UNICEF continued to provide guidance to governments on the matter.
Dr Kamuragiye maintained that each country had to weigh the pros and cons of keeping students away from the physical classroom setting, stressing that there were several challenges for disadvantaged children.
“What we are saying, whenever possible prioritize the opening of schools and think twice before taking the decision to close schools. Manage the risks,” he said.
“That takes leadership, but it cannot be a kind of emotional decision, an emotional decision of ‘yes, we care’ and then we close schools, no. It should be an informed decision, not an emotional one because for example, there is an outcry on the social media or from parents,” he added.
The Ministry of Education in Bridgetown recently announced that there will be a phased resumption of face-to-face learning from April 20 and that the school day will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
However, without singling out any country, Kamuragiye suggested that while the COVID-19 pandemic could further exacerbate inequalities, continued delay in getting children back into the classroom could be the difference in a whole generation of children and young people being “left behind”.
“UNICEF encourages governments everywhere across the world to prioritize the re-opening of schools and take all possible measures to re-open safely to protect students, teachers and other staff,” he said.
“There is overwhelming evidence that schools are not among the many drivers of the pandemic and that the benefits of re-opening them outweigh the risks children face in terms of learning loss, interests, drop outs, mental health challenges, nutrition protection, and higher inequality. This may result in the long run into poor human capital accumulation, development prospects and welfare. Schools should be the last institutions to close and the first ones to re-open,” he said.
The UNICEF-commissioned research found that around two-thirds of primary and secondary school students and 66 per cent of teachers preferred the face-to-face option for delivery of classes and assessments, compared to online.
When it came to students’ perceptions, 77 per cent of primary school students and 68 per cent of secondary school students said they felt safe attending school in person.
The percentages were even higher when it came to satisfaction with in-person teaching, with 91.4 per cent of primary school students and 89 per cent of secondary school students saying they were satisfied with that method.
On the other hand, 73.5 per cent of primary school pupils and just over half, or 55.4 per cent of secondary school students said they were satisfied with attending online classes at home.
Just over 67 per cent of teachers said they believed students were struggling in the online environment and 70.7 per cent said they were satisfied or very satisfied conducting classes in the physical classroom at school.
Only 44.6 per cent of teachers said they were satisfied with conducting online classes at home, and 41.3 per cent were satisfied with doing class activities online.
While the majority of parents reported that their children had access to a laptop or a personal computer, only a third of primary school students and just about half of secondary school students had access to a printer or scanner to complete assignments.
Parents were generally not supportive of the online teaching/learning method, citing difficulty of children to focus, lack of ability to provide support, the belief that children were exploring “inappropriate content” on the internet and the belief that children were performing worse than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, as their main concerns.
(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)
