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Nurturing fast learners in a catch-up game

28 Oct 2021

  • How reopened schools can bridge the gap on lost years of education
BY Sumudu Chamara  Amidst fears of the Covid-19 pandemic and protests by teachers and principals, a large number of schools were recently reopened for students of primary grades. Even though the overall discussion about reopening schools and resuming education is in an uncertain situation, the country cannot delay reopening schools which have been closed for nearly two years.  The priority now is how to make up for the time children lost, and ensure that they do not receive less education than they should receive.  The Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS), in a report titled “Sri Lanka State of the Economy 2021 – Pandemics and Policy: Protecting Health and Promoting Economic Recovery”, looked into the status quo of Sri Lanka’s Covid-19-hit education sector and what measures need to be taken to improve existing and establish new mechanisms, respectively, in the new normal situation. In the report’s chapter on “Education Delivery in the New Normal: Challenges and Policy Options”, the IPS noted that in a context where many countries are moving away from emergency responses towards policies aimed for recovery as the world is going through the second year of the pandemic, it is important to review the successes and challenges experienced, and stressed that such an analysis would be vital to inform future strategies in building better and more resilient education systems. The IPS report added: “Reopening schools will not be enough, and students will need tailored and continuous support to help them adjust to learning in the new normal, and similarly, those at risk of dropping out of education need to be monitored and given support to return to school. The significant cuts in education budgets experienced worldwide, at a time when additional spending is critical to adapt and recover lost learning, demonstrate the enormity of the challenges facing education systems in the months and years ahead.” Even though local studies evaluating the nature of the impact the pandemic has had on the country’s schoolchildren and their education and its true gravity, are few, certain international organisations have looked into this impact.  Citing a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) report titled “Education: From Disruption to Recovery”, the IPS report highlighted that close to 1.6 billion students from over 180 countries have been kept out of schools for extended periods in 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The IPS added that learning losses have been unavoidable and substantial, despite commendable efforts by many countries to put in place alternative remote learning strategies and remedial measures. A report titled “Pandemic Related Disruptions to Schooling and Impacts on Learning Proficiency indicators: A Focus on the Early Grades” issued by the UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics – pointed out that by early November 2020, the world student population had lost between 41% and 68% of in person schooling they would have received under usual circumstances. In addition, school closures and the resulting disruptions to learning – according to a World Bank (WB) report titled “Simulating the Potential Impacts of the Covid-19 School Closures on Schooling and Learning Outcomes: A Set of Global Estimates” – would amount to losses equivalent to $ 10 trillion in terms of affected children’s future earnings. The report also reviewed the global evidence concerning the impact of school closures on education and learning, and assessed the effectiveness of education policy responses adopted in Sri Lanka since the beginning of the pandemic.   As stated in the IPS report, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has estimated that over the course of 2020, at least 31%, equivalent to 463 million of students from pre-primary to upper secondary schools, could not be reached due to either a lack of remote learning policies or required devices and assets. Moreover, another global study, conducted among education officials on national education responses to school closures in 121 countries, had shown that remote learning methods, even when and where they are accessible, are being used by less than half of the student population in low-income countries, and that a large share of usage is via online platforms in high-income countries and upper middle-income countries. According to a study projection in the US titled “Projecting the Potential Impact of Covid-19 School Closures on Academic Achievement”, students who did not receive remote instruction in the spring would begin fall with approximately 63-68% of the learning gains in reading, compared to a typical school year, and with 37-50% of the learning gains in mathematics. Meanwhile, another study conducted among parents of schools in Germany titled “The Economic Impacts of Learning Losses” had shown that the time children spent on school-related activities per day had halved during the Covid-19 school closure period, from 7.4 to 3.6 hours. Adding that these are likely to be even more acute in lower-income countries where there is much less technological capability and higher rates of poverty, the IPS, citing a study titled “Understanding the Impact of Covid-19 in Low and Middle-Income Countries” highlighted using data from 27 lower middle-income countries that in some countries, the estimated loss of learning as a function of school closure durations could be equivalent to over 50% of an average year’s learning, while student skills could fall below the level they had reached at the end of the previous grade. With regard to the South Asian region, the IPS highlighted the findings of two studies conducted concerning Pakistan and Bangladesh titled “Learning Losses in Pakistan Due to Covid-19 School Closures: A Technical Note on Simulation Results” and “Television (TV)-Based Learning in Bangladesh: Is It Reaching Students”, respectively. The first study had revealed that learning losses for the average student lie between 0.3 and 0.8 years of learning adjusted schooling, while only 10% households that were aware of remote learning opportunities made use of it, while the second study had noted similar findings, where 86% of students in a sample of 2,000 Grade Nine students were aware of government-provided TV-based learning programmes, while only half of the students with access chose to use them.  The IPS report also analysed education sector policy responses in Sri Lanka during Covid-19 school closures, based on several studies involving teachers and students, selected education sector stakeholders including government officials, private sector representatives and school principals, and the global survey of education sector officials. With regard to the provision of distance education and its effectiveness, the report highlighted that according to the surveys, the average share of students reached online was around 45% with the figure ranging from 8% in small schools with a student population exceeding 1,000. The average share of students who reported having watched at least one TV programme was 28%, and shows no relationship to the school size. The data had indicated that while the overall share reached by TV was low, it had proven to be a better way of reaching students in smaller schools which are typically less privileged. The studies had also shown that only 30% of students in small schools were reached via both the modes, compared to over 80% students in the larger schools.  Internet-based applications used during school closures include WhatsApp, Viber, Zoom, Jitsi, and Big Blue Button (a video conferencing facility embedded with E-Thaksalawa), and other platforms created by the Education Ministry such as fee-levying commercial platforms such as Microsoft Teams, free commercial platforms such as Blackboard and Google Class, and open source platforms such as Moodle and Canvas. According to the above-mentioned three studies, only 4% of students had used advanced platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, with the remaining 41% being reached through platforms such as WhatsApp and Viber. In addition, the IPS report pointed out the importance of recovering learning losses, teacher training and support, monitoring progress through information systems, leveraging innovative capacity, and safeguarding education equity.    With regard to rebuilding the education sector in the new normal, the IPS report noted that in order to develop a more robust and high-quality education system that leaves no one behind and has contingency capacities, Sri Lanka’s education policy makers must take urgent action in designing an evidence-based comprehensive strategy for the new normal.   It added that if measures to reopen schools in rural Covid-19 low-risk areas are to be taken in the near future, it should be done by allowing schools to make decisions in discussion with the relevant school committees and regional education authorities, as opposed to blanket decisions made at the central level for all schools.  “Such plans should also involve strategies for more permanent ways of keeping schools open, supported by efficient vaccination administration to all teachers and students above the recommended age, and regular cost effective testing of both teachers and students. Education authorities should also introduce solid measures to recover lost learning once schools are opened,” the report said, quoting global studies which noted that the most common measures taken to make up for lost learning include adjustments to the school calendar, remedial programmes, and revising the curricula. Even though many of the online services used for educational purposes, i.e. online classes, are free to use, teachers and parents have raised concerns about practical matters such as data that have rendered them unable to attend and/or conduct online classes. In fact, teachers having to spend their own, personal data to provide education during the pandemic, was one of the issues pointed out by teachers’ unions who launched a spate of protests in the past few months, and among other demands, they demanded that the Government give a solution for them to cover expenses relating to online classes. Meanwhile, teachers, who spoke with The Morning, pointed out the importance of the education authorities looking into introducing an integrated education system and/or a syllabus to see to it that children receive the education they missed out on during the time the schools were closed, i.e. during the past one-and-a-half years, or during the time some schools did not operate as usual or provide education as usual, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. This was noted by Ceylon Teachers’ Service Union (CTSU) General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe, who has been a leading activist in recent teachers’ struggles regarding reopening schools.  He added: “Schoolchildren’s education remained disrupted for around two years, and the Government did not have a proper programme to rebuild it. Due to that reason, when looking at saving Sri Lanka’s education sector, the Government will certainly have to introduce a new system such as an integrated education system, or what we can call a combined syllabus. For example, if we take schoolchildren in Grades Seven and Eight, there is no time to provide education to Grade Seven students and then send them to Grade Eight for the next level of education, as we do in normal circumstances. If the disruption of education was a matter of a month or two, we could have done something to cover the lost education, but we are looking at more than one-and-a-half years, and that is not a period of time we can manage that easily, and therefore, attempting to do so in accordance with normal teaching methods is not practical. Therefore, going for an integrated education system is the most effective solution. In fact, this is a step that should have been taken earlier, and the Government should have discussed with various education experts such as the National Institute of Education (NIE) in this connection and obtained their expert opinion. This should have been planned even before the reopening of schools on 21 October, and fulfilling the education needs of students of two grades at once should have received the Government’s attention. The education authorities, while focusing on reopening schools, should have most certainly focused on introducing a mechanism to cover the syllabus in a similar way. However, unfortunately, they don’t seem to be doing that. Even though a new syllabus has been issued for primary-level classes, the same should be done for other grades and subjects as well. There is no other option.” Jayasinghe also said that even though some measures have been planned by the education authorities to hold schools for a prolonged period of time in a bid to cover the syllabus, that is not a practical solution to cover the education children lost during the past one-and-a-half years. He also added that even though proposals in that regard have been put forward to the education authorities, thus far, no positive response has been received. In order to implement an integrated education system, Jayasinghe said that teachers should be given the necessary facilities, guidance, and training. He added that when conducting online classes, teachers should be given the necessary facilities to conduct online classes. He noted that even though this is the present situation and holding online classes is of extreme importance, so far, teachers have not been given the necessary facilities, and no positive feedback has been received from the education authorities regarding the provision of the same. Jayasinghe also emphasised that ensuring adequate facilities to hold and attend online classes for both students and teachers is a pressing matter that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Even though The Morning attempted to contact Education Ministry officials in this connection, they were not available for immediate comment.  In conclusion, the IPS report said: “Similar to country experiences worldwide, Sri Lanka’s distance education delivery during Covid-19 school closures has shown many shortcomings in terms of access and quality, and high-quality online education has been limited to a selected privileged few, while the more accessible TV broadcasts have suffered from several pedagogical and logistical issues. Given the absences of a well-formulated and co-ordinated response at the central level, the responsibility of monitoring learning and providing support to students and teachers has largely fallen on schools, thereby leaving behind poorly endowed and poorly led schools and reinforcing existing education inequities in the country.” The policy recommendations it provided are: formulating a comprehensive strategy to recover lost learning when schools reopen, including remedial learning programmes, adjustments to the school calendar and curriculum, and examinations; developing a statistical framework to monitor school closure impacts that can guide data collection and follow up on Covid-19 impacts; improving pedagogy for remote and hybrid teaching, equipping teachers with skills needed to facilitate and support learning instead of simply delivering content; prudent investment in technology in line with desired education outcomes and resource capacities; and strong and committed leadership from all education system actors that can successfully adapt to emerging constraints to learning, irrespective of the level of access to technology or finances.  


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