The Impact of COVID-19 on Global Education
Coronavirus Impact on Globally
COVID-19 is a health crisis due to which many countries decided to shut down their schools, colleges, and universities. Policymakers are facing a dilemma because of the COVID-19, and that is either they should close schools to help slow down the spread of the virus, or they should keep them open and allow workers to work and stabilize the economy.
Numerous families around the world felt the disruption caused by the lockdown. Home-schooling came not only as a shock to parents but also as a loss of children’s social life and learning.
Teaching has moved online on an untested and unprecedented scale. Thee assessments are also being taken online with a lot of confusion, errors, and uncertainty for everyone. The problem is that these interruptions are not just a short-term issue, they could have an impact on students in the long term, and they could increase inequality.
Impacts on education: Schools
Children develop skills when they go to Montessori or High school, not only is this the best public policy, but it is the best way to socialize children. From an economic perspective, being in school increases the child’s ability to see things differently, to interpret information, and to learn from mistakes.
Spending a short time in Montessori or High school contributes to the children’s education, and comparatively, a single missed day at school can have an impact on the children’s skill growth.
Impacts on education: Families
On the contrary, children were never sent to the home to play, but they were sent so that they could study and learn in the hope of not missing out too much.
Online classes, tests, assignments, and projects are all a part of studying at home. However, parents are responsible for helping their children with their studies at home. Families have to play important roles here to minimize the loss of education caused by COVID-19.
This home-schooling system can also create some inspirational moments, angry moments, funny moments, and frustrating moments for children. However, there are some limitations to home-schooling in terms of parents helping their children to learn.
Critical problems here would be the time parents can contribute to the teaching of their child, the intellect of parents, their way of teaching, the resources, for example, not everyone knows how to find the best and relevant information online. Also, the education standard of parents can be a concern because, how can you teach something to your child, when you are unable to understand it yourself.
Assessments
The closure of schools, colleges, institutes, and universities interrupted the teaching of students around the world. Due to the lockdown, the dates of exams, tests, and assessments have been postponed or canceled.
The internal assessments are considered less critical, and they can be canceled, but their point is to give the parents an idea of where their child stands, what his level is, and how much improvement is needed. Due to delayed or canceled assessments, parents might not know the progress of their child, which will lead to some harmful consequences in the future.
With the concern for internal exams out of the way, let’s take a look at the problems being faced by exams for the primary public qualifications. In the UK, GCSEs and A levels exams have been canceled for the entire semester. One potential solution to the cancellated exams is “predicted grades.”
Predicted grades are the grades of qualification. These grades are suggested by the school or college of the student – the grades are based on the institution’s belief that their student will likely achieve the listed grade in favorable conditions.
Research by the Department for business, innovation & skills reveals that 51.7% of all the predicted grades were accurate. Comparatively, the stats this study showed were weak because 51.7% accuracy means that the results can either be correct or wrong because of the 50 – 50 chances. Secondly, the assessments conducted conventionally are believed to be more accurate and precise.
Moreover, in higher education, many universities and colleges have decided to replace conventional methods of providing education by giving online classes, tests, and assignments. This method is a new experience for both teachers and students; however, the risk of errors is more than usual.
Graduates
The studies of graduates have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, many universities were closed due to which major teaching interruptions were noticed. The students in the final part of their studies are expected to graduate at the beginning of a major global recession. Due to the current condition of the market, workers may have to accept lower-paid jobs, and this could also affect the career of some.
Conclusion
The global lockdown of educational institutions is going to have a significant impact on the learning of students. All the problems and their outcomes are discussed earlier. The keynotes to be taken are that due to the pandemic, there could be a replacement announced soon as an alternative to the conventional education system.
There are some measures we can take to lessen the negative impacts of the COVID-19. Montessori Schools will open once again after this pandemic, and they would need resources to rebuild the loss suffered due to lockdown. How will educational institutions use these resources, and how will they plan their approach is an open question. We have discussed the importance of assessments above in the article, so institutions should consider postponing internal examinations rather than canceling them.
For new graduates, the government should introduce policies to support their entry as a fresh candidate applying for a job to avoid more extended unemployment periods.
