Educators say students are struggling wit
MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Educators are worried that the future of Jamaica’s children is not only in jeopardy due to significant learning loss caused by setbacks, but that there seems to be no end in sight for the challenges being faced by the sector.
With May being observed as Child Month, the
spoke with teachers and school administrators in the education ministry’s Region Five (Manchester, Clarendon and St Elizabeth) to hear their views on the impact of learning loss suffered by students at the primary and secondary levels since the onset of the coronavirus last year.
A major concern relates to Jamaica’s extreme socio-economic inequalities, which some educators say could get much worse because of the current situation, where students are having classes online only.
Principal of the Roger Clarke High School in Balaclava, St Elizabeth George Lewis said the effects of learning loss will be felt for many years to come.
“We are in dire straits. We are in serious problems and these problems are going to
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Jamaica redound for years to come. Even when solutions are put in place we are going to suffer from it without question,” he told the in an interview.
Online teaching, he said, has been plagued by continued low attendance by students, which Lewis said is understandable, as he questioned the accessibility to devices.
“…We utilise the platform that is most suitable – Google Classroom – and we encourage the students to use [it], but [in circumstances where] you have a household with one phone, headed by a single parent and you have four or five children in that household. How do they (children) get online?”
“This is not a one-off case; this is not the odd case in a hundred. In my experience here at the Roger Clarke High School; it is a regular occurrence and the parents have to make a decision between buying a device and buying food,” he declared.
“They might want to buy the device yes, but how many of them can take up $28,000 one time and buy a tablet?” he asked.
Lewis, who has consistently advocated for a repeat of the school year, said the attendance of students in online classes is “worrying”.
“[It] is less than 60 per cent and it is worrying, because I have tried to find some of these students and I’m not able to find them… Many of them have moved on and they have engaged in other activities and it is worrying.
“There are students who
Observer have not been online in any classroom,” he stressed. The principal contended that there is a disparity in the education system with some schools suffering from a lack of support unlike others that have active alumni assisting the institutions.
“... We are looking out for them, as teachers, for their interest, but the pandemic has shown the glaring disparity between one school and the other because some students have access to the resources [provided by stakeholders like alumni associations]. They are heavily involved in their schools, and they help to provide resources for their schools. Some students, their parents are able to provide them with the tools and equipment they need for learning,” said the 30-year veteran educator.
“There is another set of students who do not have these resources and they are at a disadvantage and they will have to go into the same world as those who have the resources,” he added.
A St Elizabeth primary school teacher, who asked not to be identified, said some children don’t see home as a place of learning and are struggling to accept the reality of online learning.
“Over the years you were face-to-face so whether children like it or not they are being sent to school… On the online platform it is a sort of frustration because that device that they [students] have gotten for leisure time or relaxation they are now being asked to use it for learning,” she said.
She, too, has been having challenges reaching her students electronically.
“Very few students will log on in the days and those students are [the ones] who have parents behind them and encouraging them. I have 30 odd students on