Education in the “New Normal”: Parents should pay more attention to their children’s education
View(s):The COVID-19 pandemic has hit almost all countries in the world, and its impact on all sectors including the education sector, is significant. Education helps reduce inequalities and reach gender equality and is crucial to fostering tolerance and more peaceful societies. Education enables upward socioeconomic mobility and is a key to escaping poverty. In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly, including Sri Lanka endorsed a new Development Agenda.
The United Nations identified three pillars of sustainable development – Economic, Social and Environmental – and has encapsulated 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 160 targets. The fourth among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals is Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning.
In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the globe, a majority of countries announced the temporary closure of schools, impacting more than 91 per cent of students worldwide. By April 2020, close to 1.6 billion children and youth were out of school.
In Sri Lanka the first case of COVID-19 was reported on March 11. Subsequently the whole country was put under a lockdown which went on for a period of two months. During this period a considerable number of people lost their income. No cases were reported within the country until October 3 when a new case was reported from Minuwangoda.
The rapid spread of COVID-19 resulted in closure of schools and other educational institutes. Due to this reason many educational organisations had resorted to online education. However there are many limiting factors in this form of education. We need to understand that all children have access to high end technological facilities including broad band and Wi-Fi connections, laptops, computers or smart phones.
There are many parents who are struggling to provide these to their children and sadly this creates disparity between privileged children with modern technology and those who whose families are struggling financially.
Children with special needs have also been affected by online teaching. It is impossible to point out exact solutions to these issues, but parents can try different teaching aids and methodologies with more active engagement. Children with special needs with access to online facilities may find online teaching and learning a better option due to less disturbance by other students.
Parents have an important role to play during the period when their children are at home, by resorting to home schooling. This has become a popular topic during this lockdown as most of the time parents, especially mothers, have been trying to teach their sons and daughters at home.
They can be taught basic facts on topics such as environmental pollution, prevention of diseases, nutrition etc. This would be of considerable importance for their future education. The best part of this situation is that, mothers are able to identify the talents, capabilities and capacities of their children. The children would have more time to spend with their parents, and parents need to support their children’s’ online schooling.
Young children need to be assisted and trained to log into and operate online education systems. This may cause problems to working parents. In many families the grandparents take care of children and most of them may not have the necessary skills and knowledge needed to use computers etc. Even though parents would be working from home, it may not be possible for them to log in to the school system along with their work schedule. Therefore, there is a necessity to carry out evening classes for young children. Parents can also get their children involved in activities such as painting and music. Children with writing talents can be involved in writing essays, short stories etc.
Research being conducted right now, shows that it is possible for an effective COVID-19 vaccine to be made available soon, most probably in January next year. Therefore as adults we protect and nurture our future generations both mentally and physically during this temporary hardship.
-Dr. Rasanjalee Abeywickrama