Lockdown: Education needs special attention

THIS week we continue with the discussion on how we can ensure education does not wait while at the same time ensuring our schools are safe for the learner and the teacher. On this second part of the discussion we look at the psychosocial issues to be addressed within the back to school drive. This part of the discussion is informed by the conversation that I had with my little girl as referred to in part I.

Our children are worried, afraid and obviously stressed. This calls for extra effort at strengthening our bonds with them while they are on this break. We need to have age-appropriate, patient, repeated conversations with them about the virus, support them to understand that they have to concentrate more on protecting themselves and those around them than on being afraid. Responsible authorities need to come up with visuals that can be used by parents to practise going back to school. These visuals can anticipate what it would be like, and be designed to equip children and prepare them psychologically to learn within the new situation.

As I watched the Chinese video that I referred to in part one of this two-part series, it broke my heart to see little children complying with the numerous safety procedures in order to stay alive. The personal cubicles and the big hats meant to create distance around the child are necessary but do take away something from the child’s right to be a child. Children, more than adults, need their peers. We would need to explain how the need to prevent the spread of COVID 19 puts limitations to interaction with their peers.

We would have to explain the importance of physical distancing, the masks and so on. Children like sharing, chances of masks being exchanged and food being shared with unwashed hands in the classroom are very high. We would have to explain why this would not be safe. This is going to be difficult, particularly for those children living in difficult circumstances who rely on their peers for food while at school. Schools would have to identify these children and find ways of supporting them. Children are highly expressive of their emotions and that includes emotions of love for their peers, they normally do this through physical contact in the form of hugging and touching. Physical distancing is going to be very difficult to sustain but will be very necessary.

There are children who don’t get psychosocial support at home, we know some of our homes are not child friendly at best and outrightly abusive at worst. For some of these learners, school is where they feel loved and appreciated and the touch they get from their peers is the only friendly touch they get in their lives. These children will lose some of their social connectedness because of social distancing. The necessary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 would, if not mitigated, steal our children’s childhood. We need to try and prevent this. Teachers will have to be innovative and childcentred in deliberately seeking ways to maintain social connectedness among learners. Some of these ways would be to organise symbolic verbal lean on me sessions. This could be in the form of singing or just verbal appreciation for one another. Learners could take turns to talk about what they appreciate about the school, the classroom, their teacher and about their classmates. Supporting and counselling of learners would have to be broadened beyond the guidance and counselling teacher. Every teacher in one way or another would have to be equipped to deliberately seek to support the learners so they have enhanced resilience.

Learners are not uniformly gifted and some learners will be negatively affected by the long break than others. Similarly, some learners will be quicker to catch up than others. That is the diversity found in every classroom. Teachers are going to be frustrated when learners are slow. To mitigate the impact of this frustration, teachers would have to be equipped and supported to assist all their learners to reach their full potential inspite of the long break. As part of the preparations for going back to school, teachers have to be rapidly reoriented to be champions of their leaners in the context of learner compromised psychosocial wellbeing.

We all know that no one can give what they do not have. Teachers will not be able to support psychosocial wellbeing for their learners if they themselves have poor psychosocial wellbeing. It is very likely that the effect of the fear of infection, the economic difficulties and stress exacerbated by the lockdown, would have affected teachers emotionally and psychologically. As government begins to plan for schools re-opening, teachers must be worried about how they are going to make up for lost teaching time, how they are going to maintain social distancing in a classroom of at least 40 learners.

They will also worry about the virus getting into their classrooms and spreading. We are all not sure whether teachers will get adequate personal protective equipment and whether parents will afford masks for the learners. The need for social distancing with their learners is not going to be an easy practice.

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 Sibusisiwe Marunda is the regional Psychosocial Support Initiative Zimbabwe director. She writes in her personal capacity