How the Pandemic Affects Education in Developing Countries
Teachers slam governments for making education more inaccessible, favoring a select few
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has forced schools around the world to shut down face-to-face teaching, turning to alternatives that might negatively impact the quality of education.
As of this writing, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 118, 502 new confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection, less than 1% of which comes from least-developed countries (LDCs). But this low number results from LDC’s inadequate testing capacity.
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA) expressed its concern over the socioeconomic repercussions of a lack of testing in LDCs:
COVID-19 threatens to have devastating consequences in least developed countries (LDCs). Health systems may be unable to cope with a precipitous increase in infections, and these countries lack the resources to cope with the socioeconomic consequences of lockdowns around the world.
Philippines
In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte has said he will not allow schools to open until a vaccine becomes available. However, a coronavirus vaccine that is being developed by Moderna may not be due by the end of August.
When Luzon was placed under community quarantine in the second week of March, local schools opted to continue lessons using online platforms such as Google Classroom, Zoom, Skype, and even Facebook. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and other private schools decided to give live-streamed lectures online.
Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones said on Monday that the school year will be opened on August 24. Classroom instruction will also be modified, adopting the blended learning approach through ICT platforms, instead of the traditional “face-to-face” teaching.
The Department has authorized the Regional and Division Offices to decide on the learning delivery modalities that will be adopted by the schools. Learning delivery modalities include blended and online learning delivery, use of TV and radio, and printed or digital learning modules. Educators in the Philippines now call this learning approach “the new normal.”
While the Department prepares its teachers for upskilling under the new normal, teacher groups have called for a better response to the pandemic that affects 27 million students and more than 800,000 educators.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) called the Department’s distance learning a “step back from safe schools and accessible quality education.” They also demanded the Duterte Administration to “resolve the country’s health and socio-economic crisis, ensure safe schools, institute an accessible quality education, protect rights and liberties, and heed the people’s urgent calls.”
Upon reaching out to ACT for another statement, the organization clarified that they call for the government to meet the needs of the education sector:
We call that this school year will be an enrichment year. There will be learning activities but not graded. We call for the government to make use of this time to address the needs of the education sector in preparation for the resumption of the face-to-face classes.
Since June 1st, the Division Offices of DepEd have called its teachers to report and work on the learning modules, lesson exemplary, and instructional videos. Aside from making these learning materials, the teachers are also asked to oversee the online enrolment of students and to attend web seminars.
Clarissa, a public school science teacher, said that she worries about the quality of instruction that her students will receive under the new normal. Creating modules for each most essential learning competency (MELC) means removing several equally important topics from the curriculum.
“My students hardly learned from science last year. That was face-to-face. You can’t just teach science through modules,” said Clarissa.
India
Schools in Maharashtra have been set to reopen in a staggered manner. Karnataka and other states in India have adopted similar approach.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uudhav Thackeray has decided to open schools for classes 9 to 12 as early as July 1. Thackeray and Minister of School Education Department Varsha Gaikwad have said that the classes will be opened through digital and online platforms. However, a complete ban has been imposed on online classes for kindergarten pupils to class II.
The early opening of classes has alarmed some teacher unions, expressing their concern about the safety of the students during the pandemic. Currently, India has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases (343,091 total; 10,667 new) in Southeast Asia.
Several stakeholders have also urged the government to reconsider the proposal to deliver classes in kindergarten to class II through television programs, citing health concerns.
Writing to Minister Varsha Gaikwad, Early Childhood Association and Association for Primary Education and Research asked to lift the ban on online classes and suggested a 60-minute video call between students and teachers.
Union Minister of Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal said in a statement that the Ministry will ensure the continued learning of students by providing free e-learning resources.
This shift to online classes in India will further increase the digital divide among its citizens, another addition to the country’s plethora of structural imbalances.
An article published in The Statesman has a clear summary of how the pandemic affects these social divisions:
India’s school educational system, which is constitutionally guaranteed alongside numerous Central and state schemes geared towards achieving universal education and primarily related to the country’s economic, health and food security, has traditionally seen structural imbalances with respect to class, caste, language, region, developmental (urban and rural), and gender divides.
These fault lines continue to discriminate against many students. Furthermore, the advances in technology and the growing interdependence between technological innovations and sectors including education in delivery of social services, has laid bare another category of divide, namely digital divide, between school students across India. Educational institutions are most vulnerable to spread of the disease due to mass gatherings in classrooms.
Based on the data from the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) for 2017–18, internet access is only available to 42% of urban households and 14.9% of rural households. This limited internet availability is set to negatively impact the education of 320 million students.
…the pandemic is yet another grand hurdle toward fulfilling the goals of UNESCO’s Education for All.
The pandemic has created an unforeseen quandary for educators around the world, forcing most of them to embrace distance learning as the only solution.
Although distance learning has been proven to be effective when schools are well-equipped, developing countries simply do not have the ability to maximize what this learning approach has to offer. Only a tiny portion of students around the world has access to the internet or e-learning devices such as smartphones and computers. And while the affluent communities are enjoying the accessibility of education at the comfort of their own homes, a child from an impoverished family wonders when the school is opening so they could learn from their teachers and get food for free.
For countries such as Yemen, Malaysia, and Nigeria, where political conflict, gender inequality, and violence pose grave threats to education, the pandemic is yet another grand hurdle toward fulfilling the goals of UNESCO’s Education for All.
If only there is a way to unite countries for the common goal of safeguarding education while building a network of proactive communities amidst the pandemic. If only we could compel the world’s governments to re-prioritize funding to support health and education systems, making sure that no child is left behind.
One can only wonder.
