Teachers lament waning attention spans
KOTA KINABALU: During the few months of studying from home, students may take the chance to slack off and go into holiday mood prematurely but teachers are hoping that their students will not forget their studies.
Andy Anderias, for one, hopes that parents can guide their children to study and commit to joining their Google classrooms or take part in the WhatsApp or Telegram chats with teachers.
“Students, I hope you will have the self-discipline to do your own revision and finish the homework given,” the teacher said, adding that students without connectivity problems should not have any excuse to miss out on their studies.
When the movement control order was implemented in March, students were full of spirit and vigour to study online but as time passed, they have become lazier and slipped into holiday mood, he said.
A teacher at a boys school in the city said how her pupils perform depended on the type of school work she gives them.
“If the homework or exercises are based on facts, they will take more time to finish, compared to when I give them more challenging and fun work to do,” she said.
She said that while she understands that not all parents are home all the time to help their children with online homework, she hopes pupils themselves will learn as they adapt to the new normal amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
She also urged parents to be patient as everyone was adjusting to the new practices, reminding them that this was their chance to see their children grow.
“You are now given the chance to see your children develop. Be the guide and companion that your children can depend on,” she said.
A secondary school teacher in Sembulan near here feels that her students are taking their feet off the pedal and not being serious about online studies.
“Many have even returned to their hometowns without bringing along any of their textbooks,” she said.
She lamented that many have also not turned up to get their exam papers to sit for their offline exams at home this week.
“I hope the kids will at least take the initiative for their offline exams,” she added.
A primary school teacher discovered that the parents have become his “new students”.
“It’s obvious that the school work is not done by the students themselves! And as we are having our offline and online exams, we can see that the sentences were not written by the pupils,” he said.
In the long run, this will be damaging to their children, he warned.
A teacher in Tuaran observed that students who are hardworking continue to practise diligence at home, unlike their less interested counterparts.
She said her fellow teachers also complained about their students who were apathetic about learning at home, with some not even keen to check what homework has been assigned to them.
“With this pandemic, we have no choice but to do many things online, working from home and whatnot, but we just wish that parents would spare some time to monitor their children’s school work and urge them to do their own revision,” she added.