COVID-19 and Quality education for Georgia
The world is at war with the new Coronavirus. States are taking part in the struggle against which there have been no instructions to deal with.
Of course, viruses have spread before, but nations have never been so involved in the process of globalization, travel has never been so easy and this fact has made it much harder for world leaders to solve problems. The struggle is going on on the front lines of all state structures — but today I am going to talk about the education sector.
Nowadays, when universal internetization is gaining fundamental importance for social equality and inclusion, we all need skills to live, work and survive in the digital world. The crisis caused by Qovid-19 has contributed the most to this process.
We live in a world that is constantly offering new opportunities that are being sophisticated day by day. These include online courses that have a lot of benefits. This is a new horizon for everyone — access to a much larger scale of education that is accessible to us regardless of location.
Sadly, studies that show the list of the most popular sites in Georgia point out that the Internet has been used more for entertainment and communication in Georgia than for new information or for work and learning purposes. Hopefully, current events will change the results of the study for the better.
Since I live in a family of teachers, I have witnessed the immediate implementation of all the changes in the online teaching process.
In the beginning, two main difficulties arose:
- teachers didn’t have enough experience in dealing with technology and the latest programs;
- The process of contacting students and their parents one by one to find out if they have technical readiness for online lessons.
But as teachers and students gradually mastered the skills needed for this type of teaching, the positive aspects of virtual learning also emerged.
For instance, some teachers point out that students who were passive in the process of teaching lessons in class, for some reason, have been significantly revived by virtual learning.
It is noteworthy that the involvement of parents has increased, which has been a relatively problematic challenge so far. It’s clear that this period is a unique opportunity for parents who haven’t had the time to keep an eye on their children’s learning process before.
In an interview with me, the schoolchildren mentioned that it is very comfortable when you can learn where you want, how you want and, most importantly, do it all at your own pace. You have more time to study and in many cases, you have even more comfort. For example, one of the students pointed out that distance learning is ideal for him because he no longer has to sit in an awkward chair at school for hours. He mentioned, that even this small detail has a positive effect on his productivity.
In the case of university students, the number of positives increases, because if parents of schoolchildren mostly choose schools close to home for their children, the picture is different in case of students, they often have to travel so far to get to the university that you can lose two to three hours a day. This problem has been solved by distance learning, which in turn has reduced both road and food costs.
Along with the pros, we can’t ignore the insurmountable problems:
For example, my family needs four computers every day because my mother and I continue to work online, and my siblings are students.
We were lucky, we have the opportunity to take care of our business without interrupting someone’s working zone. However, a few days ago one of the computers broke down and there was a lot of uncertainty in family, we even had several arguments because we all needed to work with the computer at the same time. This made me think once again, what happens in homes where there is only one computer or only mobile phones?
Or what happens in one-bedroom houses when the child/teacher has to do the lesson and needs separation, calm environment, but their children or siblings make it impossible?
What are doing students who don’t have the appropriate conditions to be clarified during the lesson and focus on learning? Ask your familiar teachers or students about the distance learning process: They will tell you a lot of awkward moments that have made them uncomfortable or even embarrassing in front of people behind other cameras.
Normally, you will not often find computer devices in rural families in Georgia. These people don’t go to big supermarkets to buy a product. Milk products, eggs, potatoes, beans or herbs they eat are the fruit of their labor. If you can’t solve any business in the city today without a computer or a mobile phone, in villages it’s not a big challenge at all, because their reality, agenda or priorities are different.
I talked to the director of one of the schools to find out the distance learning problems in the highland regions of Georgia. The list looks like this:
lack of computer skills;
Low internet frequency;
Lack of computer equipment;
Large families with four students and only one phone.
According to the school director, the lack of computer skills is a problem that has already been overcome, however, the low frequency of the Internet, or absence of it remains an unresolved problem for them.
In 2015, the Ministry of Economy started the process of internetization, which should have covered the whole of Georgia with fiber-optic cables, but this did not happen.
In October 2019, the start of the universal internetization project was announced once again. Although the organization “Open Net”, which was created by the Ministry of Economy, is still functioning to implement the Internetization project, the latest news on the website was published in December 2016.
However, hopefully, the project “TVschools” is part of the way to solve problems in highland regions or poor families. From March 30, students have the opportunity to watch TV lessons, which includes subjects covered by the National Curriculum.
The lessons are designed for both Georgian and non-Georgian-speaking people living in Georgia (Armenians, Azerbaijanis). Most importantly, TV lessons will be provided in sign language.
Nowadays online programs or online certification are becoming more and more popular and in the current force Majeure situation virtual learning is justified, but still, it can never replace learning process in public spaces like school or university, because these institutions don’t prepare students only academically, but they are a place for organized gathering, where students are trying to understand social relations.
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