COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT CAN HELP SCHOOLS ADAPT TO THE ‘NEW NORMAL’
▶ Leading teachers from across the world have shared their ideas for transforming post-pandemic education
Governments must help teachers restart classes by encouraging more collaboration and community engagement, a leading educator said yesterday.
Andria Zafirakou, the winner of the 2018 Global Teacher Prize, was addressing the T4 Conference, an online teaching convention that brought together 100,000 teachers from at least 67 countries.
“We are in a transition phase for many countries, leaders and ministries of education all over the world,” she said.
“Most of the time they’ve got it right and most of the time they’ve also got it wrong.”
The forum will try to make sense of the new normal in schools, many of which will not reopen until September.
Vikas Pota, the host of the T4 event, is the former chief executive of the Varkey Foundation, a global charity that focuses on improving standards of education for underprivileged children.
Mr Pota set up the annual $1 million (Dh3.7m) Global Teacher Prize.
“What we really desperately need from you [ministers] is to think about the future. Be brave. Think about 10 years in advance. What do our students need?” said Ms Zafirakou, an arts and textiles teacher in the UK.
She said it was important that teachers knew what skills employers were looking for, so they could better equip pupils to find work.
“Give us the opportunities to lead our communities. Give us the opportunities to really do what we know is best for our communities because we can and we’ve been doing that as well.”
Ms Zafirakou, who works at Alperton Community School in London, said the safety of teachers and pupils would be paramount when holding classes during and after the pandemic.
She called for all teachers to be provided with adequate personal protective equipment so they could carry out their jobs safely and said some schools were showing leadership by delivering laptops and food to children’s houses.
A surge in domestic violence fuelled by strict social isolation measures can means some pupils have to rely on their schools more than their parents to care for them.
Teachers have also worked with doctors and nurses to set up Covid-19 testing stations.
A poll of teachers attending the conference found that leadership is less of a priority than it used to be.
Of the participants, 35.1 per cent said teacher collaboration was the main priority during the pandemic, while 25.6 per cent said it was teacher well-being.
A further 22.5 per cent said teacher technology was the priority, while 16.9 per cent cited teacher leadership.
Fellow panellist Maggie MacDonnell, the winner of the 2017 Global Teacher Prize, said the new normal should be “embedded and rooted in wellness” for both teachers and pupils.
“The pandemic has created an urgency that has allowed us to reflect and be critical. The old normal has plenty of problems, so let’s imagine some good new normals,” she said.
“To me, a new normal that would be successful would be embedded and rooted in wellness.
“When I talk about wellness, I don’t just mean student wellness. I mean teacher and student wellness.
“The way forward is listening to teachers and what they’ve been advocating.”
She said teachers would benefit from smaller classes, adequate pay and high-quality continuing professional development.
For pupils, it could mean the encouragement of wellness exercises such as meditation or yoga.
The T4 event features education leaders speaking from across the world.
They include Andreas Schleicher, director for education and skills at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris.
Other guests include Hiba Ballout, the science co-ordinator at Saint George Schools in Lebanon, and David Edwards, the general secretary of Education International in Belgium.
Ziauddin Yousafzai, a teacher and father of Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala, delivered a talk at the conference yesterday, while Banky W, the Nigerian-American rapper, actor and philanthropist, was scheduled to address the subject of why teachers matter.
A poll carried out by T4 this month showed that four out of five teachers across the globe believed it was not yet safe to return to the classroom because of the pandemic.