Early Childhood Education in a post-COVID world — A stakeholder perspective
This piece draws on inputs and excerpts from the study and report presented by Tabeah Sperber during the period of her internship at Key Education Foundation
2020 saw schools close one day and had schools, parents and teachers scrambling for answers the next. With the imposition of sudden lockdowns, a dozen questions were presented to stakeholders in the education sector. How would classes now be conducted? Would students still have an assessment at the end of the year? How long could an online mode of teaching sustain? With no singular solution in place, stakeholders thought out of the box and came up with solutions they saw fit for their schools, teachers and children. One year into this global pandemic, normalcy is resuming, but for stakeholders in the education sector, a new set of questions on returning to school have presented themselves.
In an attempt to uncover these questions and present possible solutions, Key Education Foundation conducted a study involving key stakeholders as well as experts on the future of Early Childhood Education[ECE] for children from disadvantaged communities in urban India. This article seeks to lay out the findings of the research conducted on a sample of 19 individuals who presented their views from the lens of being school leaders, parents, teachers and ECE experts.
Dealing with the initial shock
The initial few months of the pandemic created new challenges for educators. Answers to questions such as “What was your initial responses to the pandemic?” revealed that while the primary concern for school leaders was dealing with financial and budgetary constraints, parents were concerned about providing nutritious food to their children and managing home life and work life which suddenly existed in the same space. Teachers expressed their initial confusion and lack of clarity on how learning would take place at home or over the phone. The Home Learning Program by KEF, they stated, brought some structure into place and was the exact kind of learning they had hoped for students.
Despite the presence of a structure for home learning, the lack of a traditional classroom set-up brought out some other challenges for both teachers and parents who were now their children’s primary educators. They spoke of the lack of a social environment that prompted children to build on skills like sharing and empathy. Teachers spoke of ideas they implemented to bridge this gap by sharing videos showing children their classmates doing activities and even scheduled weekly calls to help them catch up with each other. Teachers were also concerned about the physical development of children at this time where they could not go out of the house often or engage in usual school-based physical activities.
Parents, on the other hand, struggled with managing time, since their responsibilities at home had expanded due to all family members being at home all the time. Apart from increased amounts of cooking and cleaning, they were now also responsible for giving more attention to child rearing in general, and being their teacher in specific. They realised the constraints they faced in dedicating themselves to teaching as a teacher would. A parent even quipped about the change in children’s attitude towards learning at home and how the lack of fear at home has made them less serious about completing their tasks. Most parents, however, were glad to have had this time to watch their children learn and noted that they were extremely fast learners.
The School leaders that we interviewed were preoccupied with financial and budgetary constraints and were unable to dedicate themselves completely to noticing the developmental progress of children.Their primary concerns lay in creating a stable structure to ensure that schools continued to function amidst the financial crunch and a lack of direction from the government. School Leaders also spoke of the need to assure the continuity of children’s learning to the parent community who may be justifiably concerned and perhaps even confused.
Challenges going forward
To better understand stakeholder expectations for when schools begin to bounce back post COVID, we asked questions like “What will be the biggest obstacle when students and teachers return to school?”, “What do you think you will need to do / focus on when children return to schools after one full year of learning at home?” and “What do you think schools can do when they reopen to help support your children as they return to school?”. We found that in preparation to return to school, school leaders were concerning themselves with classroom safety, teachers with reintroducing children to school and parents prioritising the safety of children. A common thread that linked all stakeholders in their vision for the post-COVID academic year was the need to recap all learning done at home and ensure that learning has taken place before moving on with syllabus.
School leaders suggested developing a recap model to judge the level of learning that has been done.
Teachers agreed that the first order of business should be to determine the extent of learning done before moving forward with further learning. They stated that the lack of ability to ask doubts to parents could have created some confusion in children and it would be necessary to solidify those foundational concepts instead of rushing the completion of portions. They also were doubtful of the amount of help children received at home with parents being burdened more than usual.
Parents were not sure about how well children have grasped concepts, so they also believed that a recap would be best for children when they return to school.
The most urgent concerns about the future revolved around ensuring safety of children in schools — school leaders were thinking of ways to mandate wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and even introducing a batch system to avoid crowding. With children in the early years, the risk of contact and transmission through shared play material, water bottles and lunch boxes is high making the implementation of controls all the more necessary. Parents stated that the life of children is their utmost priority and hence schools should put safety before anything else in the new normal. Teachers also noted that it would be necessary to reassure parents of their children’s safety before expecting them to send their children back to school. They also felt like it would be necessary to reintroduce the concept of school to children as they are no longer used to sitting in a classroom amidst their classmates and participating in a formal learning environment. From an academic standpoint, School leaders and teachers were also struggling to respond to requests from parents to conduct a year-end assessment and promote students to the next grade.
What do experts in early education have to say?
As we listened deeply to the concerns of the stakeholders, we also heard from experts in the field who were grappling with issues that were very similar in their own contexts.
Here is what they had to say:
Summary
As we chart our future course to design relevant solutions for each stakeholder, here is what we learned:
- Stakeholder voices are more important now than ever before: Acknowledging the struggle faced by parents, school leaders and teachers and bringing their voice forward is essential to ensure their well being and help them get through the pandemic just as we are concerned for our children.
- Children are resilient: While our children have definitely suffered losses in some academic learning like recognition of letter sounds or pre-reading, they are more than capable of transitioning back to school and making social and emotional progress if we give them a safe and enriching environment when we begin the new academic year.
- Children need social interaction in the early years: The pandemic has certainly curbed social interaction for young children as they cannot step out to play or attend school. However, in the context of the Indian low income community, this seems to have been compensated for to an extend through interaction between extended families and within the community despite the lockdown.
- Adults value academic outcomes that are easily visible over social and emotional indicators: The need of the hour is to help them consciously engage in thinking that leads to the recognition of the overarching skills that education serves to build apart from grades and rankings. If these gaps in social and emotional wellbeing during the pandemic are not addressed, it could lead to a significant adverse experience in the future.
- Safety is a priority: Despite the evidence that children’s learning and socialisation is taking a hit, it is clear to parents, teachers and school leaders that safety comes before all. The primary concerns to be solved in the upcoming academic year relate to ensuring that safety protocols are followed and that children are healthy and safe at school.
- Pause, recap and revise: Stakeholders are clear in their intention to recap learning done at home before moving on with curriculum, highlighting the importance they are placing on solidifying learning over rushing to complete syllabus.
Interacting with our stakeholders for the purpose of this study was an experience deeply rooted in human emotions that showed us yet again the human cost that the pandemic has extracted. At the same time, it also helped us visualise what needs to be done to enable and empower the people who are left in a tough situation without any support and direction. As an organization working in the social sector, it gives us valuable inputs to define our initiatives so that we can do our bit in ensuring that the youngest members of our society are still provided with the support they need to become the strongest foundations of our future.
