COVID19 ‘Writing-off’ the School Term in Jamaica.
With the COVID19 pandemic creating havoc across the world, Jamaicans have also been fathoming the spread of the virus across the island. This pandemic has placed a strain on the daily lifestyle, income, workforce, health care and the Education system since Mid-March. There’s no telling when this strain will be lifted and as such a new norm towards our existence has been a reality many of us are battling to accept, adjust and abide by.
Schools are closed which means students are at home. However, learning continues and teachers are grappling with Distance learning and the myriad of technological platforms to be used to ensure that content is taught and students are reached. Many of us have found ourselves glancing through a kaleidoscope in order to find one route that connects with us during this time. Life as we knew it as teachers has become a maze with little or no reassurance of how to get through it successfully. For teachers who have no WIFI access at home, this has placed a strain on their pockets to purchase data plans to keep the connection between themselves and their students alive. It’s only fair to acknowledge the fact that parents too are significantly affected as most of them aren’t capable of ‘juggling’ work life, a family and homeschooling; which has become a giant in their lives. Whilst some might say learning begins and continues at home; homeschooling is much more than assisting your child/children with their projects and homework. Homeschooling isn’t only about the curriculum stipulated by the Ministry of Education. In fact, it is comprised of structure and flexibility to explore the strategies that work best for your child and to tap into extra curricular activities to stimulate creativity and cognitive development. What we are doing now is ‘pandemic schooling’ for the most part. I can sense the sighs and eye opening moments at this time, but in the context of COVID19 dropping on us like a nuclear bomb this is indeed ‘pandemic schooling’. Some parents still go to work and the support that their child or children would need is not provided to them. Some are struggling with finding common ground to schedule their daily activities in order to effectively assist their child at home now that more contact hours are added to spend with them . Some parents are not cognitively competent to guide the learning process. Another major setback of this type of schooling is the lack of resources and access to internet connection for some parents. Albeit, teachers are making the efforts to distribute content and provide virtual teaching experiences; there are parents who are unable to access these benefits for their children. How do we fix this problem? How will these children benefit? Will they be expected to repeat their grades? What will life be like after COVID19? How will the Education system evolve in terms of remediation and regression of our students? Are we ready to accelerate towards virtual education? These are a few of the questions educators have been asking as well as currently discussing globally. How will we be dealing with COVID19 when the possibility exists that all or many of us will contract the virus or come in contact with others who have it? I have all the confidence in our leaders that they will find common ground where all these measures are concerned. Be reminded they too are sieving through this strain in order to make conscious and practical decisions that will affect all of us. So while we wait on the mitigation of COVID19 let us do our part the best that we can. I applaud the efforts we already took and I hope we will continue to be encouraged to move forward. These are indeed chaotic times but we have to find a new norm and make that shift to safeguard our existence and the education of the nation’s children. There’s no better time than now to reimagine the Education system and parenting as we knew it. In Wuhan, China even though lockdowns have being lifted for many days now; they are still struggling to normalize life. This will soon become our reality here in Jamaica. Life after COVID19 is anticipated. When and how we deal with it when it arrives is determined by the choices we make now.
Schools are closed which means students are at home. However, learning continues and teachers are grappling with Distance learning and the myriad of technological platforms to be used to ensure that content is taught and students are reached. Many of us have found ourselves glancing through a kaleidoscope in order to find one route that connects with us during this time. Life as we knew it as teachers has become a maze with little or no reassurance of how to get through it successfully. For teachers who have no WIFI access at home, this has placed a strain on their pockets to purchase data plans to keep the connection between themselves and their students alive. It’s only fair to acknowledge the fact that parents too are significantly affected as most of them aren’t capable of ‘juggling’ work life, a family and homeschooling; which has become a giant in their lives. Whilst some might say learning begins and continues at home; homeschooling is much more than assisting your child/children with their projects and homework. Homeschooling isn’t only about the curriculum stipulated by the Ministry of Education. In fact, it is comprised of structure and flexibility to explore the strategies that work best for your child and to tap into extra curricular activities to stimulate creativity and cognitive development. What we are doing now is ‘pandemic schooling’ for the most part. I can sense the sighs and eye opening moments at this time, but in the context of COVID19 dropping on us like a nuclear bomb this is indeed ‘pandemic schooling’. Some parents still go to work and the support that their child or children would need is not provided to them. Some are struggling with finding common ground to schedule their daily activities in order to effectively assist their child at home now that more contact hours are added to spend with them . Some parents are not cognitively competent to guide the learning process. Another major setback of this type of schooling is the lack of resources and access to internet connection for some parents. Albeit, teachers are making the efforts to distribute content and provide virtual teaching experiences; there are parents who are unable to access these benefits for their children. How do we fix this problem? How will these children benefit? Will they be expected to repeat their grades? What will life be like after COVID19? How will the Education system evolve in terms of remediation and regression of our students? Are we ready to accelerate towards virtual education? These are a few of the questions educators have been asking as well as currently discussing globally. How will we be dealing with COVID19 when the possibility exists that all or many of us will contract the virus or come in contact with others who have it? I have all the confidence in our leaders that they will find common ground where all these measures are concerned. Be reminded they too are sieving through this strain in order to make conscious and practical decisions that will affect all of us. So while we wait on the mitigation of COVID19 let us do our part the best that we can. I applaud the efforts we already took and I hope we will continue to be encouraged to move forward. These are indeed chaotic times but we have to find a new norm and make that shift to safeguard our existence and the education of the nation’s children. There’s no better time than now to reimagine the Education system and parenting as we knew it. In Wuhan, China even though lockdowns have being lifted for many days now; they are still struggling to normalize life. This will soon become our reality here in Jamaica. Life after COVID19 is anticipated. When and how we deal with it when it arrives is determined by the choices we make now.
On point. 👍👍👏
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