COVID-19 disrupts teaching practice for trainee educators
WESTERN BUREAU:
DR GARTH Anderson, the dean of the Teachers Colleges’ of Jamaica (TCJ), has revealed that teaching practice for approximately 800 trainee teachers has been affected by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused the ministry to pull the plug on plans to restart traditional face-to-face schooling this month.
With classes now being held online in an effort to slow the transmission of the virus, administrators have rescheduled teaching practice exercises, hoping they will be able to be carried out in the next school term.
“Because of COVID-19, our fourth-year students who should have been going out [for teaching practicum] this semester, we have to defer that until next semester in January,”Anderson told The Gleaner.
He said the affected students are enrolled in eightTCJ member institutions – Bethlehem, Church, St Joseph’s, Sam Sharpe and Shortwood teachers’ colleges, as well as the College of Agriculture, Science and Education; Moneague College; and the G.C. Foster College of Physical Education and Sport.
“What we have going on now is that the courses that they would do in next semester, we have the students doing those courses now, while our board of studies that deals with practicum is now working out alternatives as we make plans for next semester,” Anderson explained. “Practicum effectively should be next semester. It may not be in the same format as we know it, but we are making plans and looking at different scenarios and different approaches that we can do to ensure our students do their practicum exercise.”
Anderson said that while enrolment figures had not taken a significant hit at these teacher-training institutions, the COVID-19 pandemic has left many students facing financial challenges.
“I think where the difficulty may be at this time is their ability to finance their education. A number of parents are out of jobs and a number of students who would normally go on work experience programmes overseas to earn their living and to pay their tuition fees did not get a chance to go, and that is certainly affecting their ability to honour their tuition obligations for this semester,” stated Anderson.
“Of course, we are also struggling with connectivity issues. A number of our students are having difficulty connecting [to Internet platforms] despite the fact that the colleges have worked very hard to have 80 per cent of our courses online.”
He said those at other levels of the education sector, many college students were also having challenges acquiring devices and a stable Internet connection to participate in online classes and to keep in touch with faculty members.