The idea of asking for reports on ‘virtual teaching’ is farcical

Oct 08, 2020 Letters

---

Dear Editor,

COVID-19 has affected more than two hundred countries throughout the world in unprecedented ways. This pandemic has created massive disruption of the education systems in our history, affecting over 1.6 billion children in the world.

Most countries have crafted policies and have shifted to a ‘remote learning model’ trying to provide the best learning experience for their children through meaningful engagement and frequent learning opportunities since the COVID-19 crisis and the unparalleled disruption in education is far from over.

All schools across Guyana have been closed since March 13, 2020 and to date teachers were never given any guidance or direction on the way forward. Many of our teachers took it upon themselves, utilizing their own resources to engage learners on a virtual platform, mainly on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

The sad reality is, teachers are now being asked by the Ministry of Education to prepare and submit a weekly report on what was done through virtual teaching. How can you prepare a report when the MoE has done nothing to establish any virtual teaching platform for its learners? That is, of course, unreasonable and the idea of asking for reports on ‘virtual teaching’ is farcical.

The MoE is giving parents the idea that teachers must engage their children in distance learning when they have not invested in any of those platforms. For many years now, teachers have always been asked to ‘improvise’ and to be ‘innovative’ but this, need to come to an end. Why aren’t they being provided with the requisite tools/materials needed for education delivery particularly for remote learning?

Many are displeased with the fact that teachers are still receiving their monthly salaries while away from schools but these persons fail to understand that we are living in an unprecedented time and teachers, like every other person, have a family to take care of. It should be noted that teachers are still being instructed to go out there in the midst of rising COVID-19 cases and distribute textbooks, exercise books, NGSA result slips along with printed learning materials. We can therefore say that our teachers are working for their salaries while putting their lives at risk for the nation’s children.

I wish to applaud the Ministry of Education for investing in the Guyana Learning Channel and its wide coverage which has been delivering curriculum to our children across Guyana along with the printed learning materials that are being distributed to them. However, it is disappointing to know that only learners who do not have internet connectivity are receiving those materials.

Since the online platforms were never the MoE’s initiative I think they need to provide equal opportunity for our children and each child should receive printed materials. I am therefore, recommending to the Ministry of Education to utilize the postal service to provide these supplemental learning materials, such as workbooks and worksheets, to keep the children engaged during this period and stop instructing teachers to go out there and distribute these materials.

It is quite simple. Have these learning materials delivered to schools, teachers will then uplift same, make an arrangement with the Guyana Post Office so that teachers can take these packages to be posted, since they have the address of every learner and it will be delivered to these learners. In that way, our educators will remain safe from this deadly disease and every child will be given the opportunity to have access to printed materials.

Apart from that, a meeting was held on the 28th August with the Honourable Minister of Education and Grades Five and Six teachers via Zoom. Teachers suggested to the Minister that the $15,000 cash grant, promised by her administration, for every child in the public school system, should be withheld and used to purchase tablets for the children instead which can be used to establish a virtual platform.

One may question, why purchase tablets for every child when there isn’t internet connectivity throughout the length and breadth of Guyana? It is common knowledge that these very electronic gadgets can also have offline educational programmes installed. We can then talk about equal opportunity for our children. I would like to think that the Honourable Minister would have rubbished that idea proposed by those educators since earlier last month when the government announced the cash grant.

The Learning Channel, electronic gadgets in the form of tablets or iPads and supplemental learning materials such as worksheets and workbooks will certainly provide an equal opportunity for every child and only then we will be on a level playing field. I am hopeful that my ideas be considered useful to the MoE and that something will be done anytime soon so that our children can benefit through distance learning as we all battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
Yours sincerely,
Ashan Bacchus

---

---