NATASHA is an ordinary nine-year-old with a bubbly personality and a vivacious charm, but that was before.
Now, every day or every other day she is made to sit in front of her mother’s smartphone, mounted on a gadget on their dining table.
With her teacher at the other end, Natasha is expected to keep her focus on what the teacher is saying for at least two to three hours each time.
She tries as much, but after 20 minutes or so she loses control of her mind.
It travels far, mostly to the good old times when she went to school and had her friends and teachers to interact with. Back then, there were a host of field activities which Natasha enjoyed and sorely missed.
A screeching voice from her mother, occasionally, jolts her to reality and she “wakes up” to now and pretends to be all ears.
Natasha has taken a dislike to online classes as she finds it difficult to focus and grasp what the teachers are saying at the other end.
She particularly loathes having to do the loads of homework the teacher uploads into the minds of her students.
Most times, she is at wit’s end on how to finish her homework because the topics haven’t been covered or maybe it has been and Natasha wasn’t paying attention.
Natasha is losing her endearing traits and her mother is worried, just like millions of parents worldwide.
The United Nations roughly estimates that nearly 1.5 billion children around the globe now, or 87% of the Earth’s student population whose schools have closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic are “displaced”, and more than 60 million teachers are in a similar conundrum.
Education has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, leaving young learners impacted by school closures worldwide.
As lockdown measures ease in some parts of the world, school gates have started to reopen.
But such an interruption in learning activities could have deep, long-term consequences, especially for children of low-income households.
Some argue that schools were never entirely shut, some remained open for vulnerable pupils and children of essential workers while others quickly replaced physical classrooms with online learning activities.
Replacing physical classes with online learning is not as easy as it sounds or appears. In our daily news we read of incidents where more than one child shares the only smart phone in the family to connect to online classes while yet in some remote locations, parents have resorted to setting up classes outside the home, under the tree or even on the tree!
The new normal has posed a challenge for teachers who have to shift their approach overnight from in-person teaching to virtual teaching, having to adapt to the complex digital world and imbibing the technical expertise.
Many senior teachers, who have grown accustomed to the conservative methods, are finding themselves incapacitated in effectively delivering lessons online.
Technological prowess is still a challenge that can be solved, but, in my opinion, the biggest barrier that e-learning faces in Malaysia is access to e-learning, either due to lack of connectivity or hardware.
Without a uniform digital infrastructure, both students and teachers are facing unprecedented challenges and will continue to do so.
Experts have predicted that the new normal is here to stay with the way we live, learn, study and experience life taking on a totally different approach, post pandemic.
The first challenge to rebuilding an education system that is inclusive and fit for a post-pandemic new normal will be to bring educators to the policy table.
Teachers and students I spoke to feel their voices of despair are not being heard.
Many feel that education policy would benefit tremendously if smaller stories and experiences happening in the country, from the remotest villages to the most advanced cities are recorded and studied.
The second challenge will be to rebuild an education system based on data about learning needs, including the social and emotional needs of children.
Researches from past pandemics show long lasting negative impacts on children and so gathering data on just how much the pandemic is altering behaviours in children will shed light on the next steps.
Most importantly, policymakers, educators and technology companies have a rare window of opportunity to take radical action
While there is a clear need, and now opportunity to advance personalised learning through technology, just over 40% of the world’s population remains unconnected and this calls for a new education imperative.
Numbers from the Statistic Department say Malaysian households’ access to internet stands at percentage 90.1% in 2019.
However, the percentage of households’ access to computer stands at to 71.3%. Herein lies the perennial problem.
Having access to smart phones and internet does not guarantee that the Malaysian population is ready for the e-learning challenge for the decade.
As we saw from Natasha’s story, when catering to primary or secondary grade students, the e-learning platforms must lookout for students’ attention span and design engaging content presented in a simplified manner.
This not only motivates students to open up but also encourages them to participate with the use of multiple and varied teaching aids.
Covid-19 has created a long-lasting impact on the world and its outlook to almost everything.
We used to consider e-learning to be a supplementary tool for school or college education which has now shifted to a primary source of learning.
If approached in the right manner, e-learning can redefine the education system of the decade.
What the pandemic has taught us is the significance of resilient and adaptive societies, starting with young people.
Technology alone cannot get us there but neither can an education system that is no longer fit for purpose.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
