Quality education in times of pandemic
We know that for more than a year now we have been facing a pandemic. The coronavirus has arrived to affect all of our lives and among them, one of the most important sectors, education. We have praised technology, which has undoubtedly been a great help, but this is happening in many countries, especially in developing countries.
I was listening to a conference a few days ago by Antonio Pérez Esclarin, sponsored by Polar Enterprises, and he even talked about a division between those who have access to technology, the infopoor and the inforico. This is unleashing a process of exclusion that sometimes includes teachers.
To this he added connection problems, power cuts and low salaries, all of which add up to more and more barriers to maintaining good quality education. The children have just finished the school year, and their education was assisted by family, friends or other teachers who now provide home-based counselling to help with the economic situation.
In this publication I will detail some of them:
Carry out a diagnosis to establish the type of technology that is most appropriate to use. This is with the intention of covering as much of the student population as possible. This does not only have to be done through the computer, as other media such as radio and television can be used.
Ensure access to e-learning programmes for the whole population. This includes the disabled, low-income families, among others. Recommending that the government make this a state policy.
Ensure privacy and security of student data. This requires care and security in the use of computer media to ensure the privacy of students and those involved in this new type of encounter.
Provide socio-emotional support: it is necessary to study the impact on the population, in order to provide help for the problems of confinement and what this involves for each family.
- Provide technical and training assistance to those involved in the use of ICTs. We know that our children and young people behave like digital natives, but even teachers and family members may need help.
We can see then that it is not easy to establish criteria to ensure that there is an adequate quality of education because there are many intervening variables; however, many teachers have followed the call and are giving their best. I read them!
Images
It is a broad and difficult topic to discuss, because of many of the situations that arise and others that are not described, however, enough time has passed and still many schools and teachers do not pay attention to this problem and prefer to blame the system rather than seek a solution.
thank you for your contribution
I share with you the same idea; many stayed with the problem and did not look for the solution. Crises also bring opportunities, but if there is no intention, it is not seen from the action.
The education through zoom meetings and so could be successful but for sure isn't a substitute for the traditional education in schools and universities.
One of the challenges that face e-learning is that not all families have internet and if the government could provide that, I doubt they could provide the devices that can be used for that as there are many families that lack the devices like phones, laptops, or tablets for learning or they have one but that's not enough for some big families.
I agree that the government must ensure conditions; but there are things that will be out of its hands. In Venezuela a few years ago many institutions were equipped with computers and tablets, and you could see on sites like the free market how people were selling them... so you realise that sometimes home education must prevail.
This online classes will be difficult for some family expect if the government are going to provide the tools to use for everyone and I doubt if that is possible.
That's right, it can be extremely difficult to do so... let's hope that conditions improve so that we can return to face-to-face classes.