How is Circuit Breaker affecting students coming into pre-university education?
An inside look at how Singapore’s students are coping during COVID-19.
On April 7th, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong rolled out the “Circuit Breaker”, requiring students to stay home until June 1st. This has called for student self-discipline in attending tutorials and viewing online lectures. However, many students have been struggling to keep sane while juggling studies and leisure.
In this article, we explore the ways student life has been affected by the Circuit Breaker, not just academically but in other aspects such as CCAs and more, covering possible methods to tackle the issues that students face in the Circuit Breaker.
Student Life Under Lockdown
An average day of Home-Based Learning (HBL) begins with attendance taking, followed by online lessons with teachers hosting video calls on programs such as Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, Zoom, and more. After the day of lessons is over, students who have CCAs may have calls with other CCA mates to practice; sports CCAs would have physical training video calls; aesthetic CCAs would have calls of students practicing their instruments with the rest of the ensemble.
Certainly, the change in the format of education has caused issues to arise due to wifi-speeds, conduciveness of home environments, and different responses to the stagnant lifestyle of staying home.
Lifestyle-wise, life under the Circuit Breaker has been, not surprisingly, a bore — for reasons ranging from being unable to visit friends, not being a homebody, to just not having many things to do at home.
With conventional schooling out of the picture, students are expected to have the self-discipline to take ownership of their learning and spend their time wisely. However, it proves to be difficult for most of us, being exposed to many elements of comfort in our lives such as the bed, unsupervised usage of our phones, and the computer. The fall in productivity is echoed by the three interviewed students, Jolin Che, a JC1 student from Anderson-Serangoon Junior College, states:
“ I think I’m less productive during CB cuz (sic) in school there’s deadlines and teachers to impose deadlines”
This is no surprise as learning is definitely enhanced in the conducive environment provided by schools. It is not just the classroom during lessons but the campus itself; the atmosphere of a school campus is far different from the cozy confines of one’s home.
Apart from just productivity, other issues surfaced from being locked down. A lack of exercise and irregular sleeping habits were prominent issues among the students.“Some people say they eat a lot when at home, but for me, I don’t eat breakfast because of lessons. I occasionally have coffee; I skip lunch and (then) have a minor dinner,” says Skye They, a year one student from Singapore Polytechnic.
Perhaps all of this could be attributed to the lack of direction.
Currently, there are no rules or timetables we have to follow. No mandated physical activities, no designated breaks ensuring that students eat their meals, and — as online lessons can only ensure so much that students are paying attention — no supervision to prevent us from slacking off.
But students being students, we have learned to be resourceful enough to make the best out of our current situation and find ways to work around our issues. To work around her unproductiveness at home, Jolin explains.
“My friends and I call each other often to talk and stuff. If we have trouble doing work, we will video call to teach each other.”
This message is echoed by Skye, who mentions.
“ If you have friends around you to video call and stuff to get through the day, them eating dinner will persuade you to eat dinner.”
Schools Playing Their Part
Seeing all the challenges faced by students, it is expected that schools have rolled out measures to maintain the standard of education for students to continue their learning as much as possible.
For online lessons, some measures used by teachers to ensure that students pay attention during classes include having students turn on their cameras to show that they are not on their phones or taking a quick nap. Skye says.
“My teacher asks questions during class, and answering questions counts towards your attendance, forcing us to pay attention. Generally, I think we do have to speak up in class which is a way to pay attention, as we have CA9 which counts towards 15% of our final GPA. CA9 is class participation marks.“
Whether it be through grade incentives or surveillance of their students, it can be seen that teachers are putting in their fair share to ensure the seamless transition from classroom teaching to online classes.
Students have raised some possible methods they feel would improve their classroom experiences, encouraging them to pay more attention to the lessons. One suggestion by Skye is to plan more entertaining classes, such as by incorporating Kahoot quizzes or other activities:
“They can implement small activities. Like in my ST class (story-telling), [..] the way my teacher makes it interesting is by conducting small activities like having us come up with a superhero… and [having us]make a story from that. If every teacher implemented something like that I feel it would be more entertaining. Currently, they just show slides and ask for us to do research.”
When students are entertained by the classes, teachers naturally have their attention, discouraging students from spacing out during lessons, or getting distracted by the internet and phones.
Another suggestion is by Jolin, who states.
“In lectures and in Chinese classes and Lit classes we have due dates to comply by to hand up the work. I also find that group work helps as the responsibility is shared among all members, which give me the incentive to work harder”
This solution reinstates order in the uncertain nature of Home-Based Learning. To be locked down to concrete deadlines as well as chained to a group responsibility might just be what we need in this time of unstructured solitude; a time where students live their days in a zombie-like state, wondering what comes next.
Surely, this can all be chalked up to a lack of self-discipline…but what’s the point of identifying the cause without having an answer?
Can HBL Be A Prolonged Substitute?
Prior to students being plunged into the lockdown, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung stated：
“HBL is a fall back when schools are suspended; it cannot be a prolonged substitute for school.”
At the time, us students probably did not think much of this statement. We thought this shift into home-based learning would be no different from our one day-a-year home-based learning exercises.
Thus, I feel it is important for us to reflect upon this message after gaining insight into the experience of two months of lockdown. Exactly how different have our online classes been from the real thing?
For our three students, it was a resounding agreement with the Minister’s statement.
Jolin, having experienced three months of prior face-to-face lessons with teachers, was able to make a direct comparison between both forms of lessons. The differences are stark:
“In HBL we learn way less than classroom lessons, (because) in (HBL) lessons, we don’t enforce the camera to be turned on.
In normal classes, it is less stressful as [when] the teacher asks for my answer. If I don’t know, I can look to my friend for some help.
But on online classes, it’s just myself. In online classes, it’s only the teacher talking so it’s very tense, and no one dares to answer the teacher when they ask questions.”
In everyday classrooms, the teacher is able to foster conversations with students about the subject matter, as well as encouraging the students to raise any concerns or questions. For online classes it is an entirely different experience: the warmth of a classroom, the support of your friends, are all replaced with a cold, unfeeling screen staring back at you as you listen to your teacher conduct class over a video call.
It just isn’t the same.
Impact On Tuition Centres
Classrooms aren’t the only things that have changed due to the lockdown.
Tuition centers have also been affected, moving to online platforms as well. But what changed? A student that has experienced both face-to-face tuition and online tuition shared their opinions with us.
On the bright side, it is less stressful for those who get nervous in the presence of the teacher. Another benefit is that they are able to eat during class. Above all, they much preferred online tuition as it saved money and time: for their provider it is cheaper than face-to-face tuition, and also saved on travel time.
Unfortunately, the lower amounts of stress in tuition classes often leads to students not finishing work, which the student admits defeats the purpose of tuition. Where teachers do not request students to show their faces during lessons, students also tend to slack off.
In terms of effectiveness, the student states that online tuition is equally as effective as face-to-face tuition, as questions during classes are still answered; in order to ensure that students are doing work while in class, the teacher does ask for students to send pictures of in-class work.
This response is in line with online claims stating that online tuition, as a relatively new method, is remarkably efficient in connecting students and teachers. Online tuition may actually be a reliable substitute for face-to-face tuition after all.
Counting Losses And Moving Forward
It would be an understatement to say that the first year for students in Pre-University has not been affected by the lockdown. But exactly how much has their experience been affected? What have they missed out because of the pandemic?
Jolin imagines that she would have had a more bonded cohort if orientation was not cut short and if she was not burdened by concerns of being academically behind time due to the Circuit Breaker. Because of the Circuit Breaker, she also mentions the higher chance of students possibly doing worse in tests and exams.
Skye and Joel Loh, a year one student from ITE West, whose orientations have been canceled due to the pandemic, state that their experience in school would have been “way different”. Skye laments that her class is full of outgoing people who are fun to talk to, but that fun is now limited to an online platform, nothing close to face-to-face interaction.
“I think I would understand the subjects even more than I do now and that my class would understand the subjects even better”, mentions Joel, adding that “my concerns are that I fail to follow instructions that my teachers give because HBL tends to be dry on certain subjects like practicals. We can’t (be) hands-on because we don’t have the tools to do so; the lessons become very dry.”
However, to move forward we can only keep our chin up and move on from this experience. Studies have shown that in the past, pandemics have lasted from 12 to 36 months. It is essential that we prepare ourselves for a possible second bout of lockdown and perhaps more.
Jolin suggests still having CCAs for JCs, similar to the current Polytechnic and ITE arrangements. Not having CCAs results in a harder time for students to get integrated into their CCAs, which is an important aspect of holistic education.
Joel affirms this, stating.
“My friends and I join our CCA’s physical training session over the web to improve our physicality.”
Skye brings up the possible use of social media apps for students to keep their friendships and classes bonded. Apps such as Plato, Houseparty, and Telegram provide simple and fun games to keep in touch with people.
Lastly, here are what the interviewees would like to tell the readers of this article.
Jolin: Hello! I hope you guys are doing well so far! Even if you’re not, don’t worry it’ll be over soon! We’re all in this together :) Enjoy your holidays!!
Skye: To all my fellow DMC students, I feel your pain. I hate VC too. I have been sitting in the same spot for 6 hours trying to edit a freaking poster. Jiayous we can get through this together! Stay Hydrated!
Joel: We can do this! Don’t forget to ask your teacher for help if you don’t know anything!
A reminder to many students out there that it is important that we remain as strong pillars of support for our friends; in turn we should also rely on each other to get through this tumultuous time, whether it be in terms of academics, eating habits, or physical training.
All of us are in this together, facing this pandemic.
