Education and the COVID-19 pandemic
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Education and the COVID‑19 pandemic Sir John Daniel1
© UNESCO IBE 2020
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic is a huge challenge to education systems. This Viewpoint offers guidance to teachers, institutional heads, and officials on addressing the crisis. What preparations should institutions make in the short time available and how do they address students’ needs by level and field of study? Reassuring students and parents is a vital element of institutional response. In ramping up capacity to teach remotely, schools and colleges should take advantage of asynchronous learning, which works best in digital formats. As well as the normal classroom subjects, teaching should include varied assignments and work that puts COVID-19 in a global and historical context. When constructing curricula, designing student assessment first helps teachers to focus. Finally, this Viewpoint suggests flexible ways to repair the damage to students’ learning trajectories once the pandemic is over and gives a list of resources. Keywords curriculum · learning · teaching · assessment · COVID-19 · pandemic · crisis The last 50 years have seen huge growth worldwide in the provision of education at all levels. COVID-19 is the greatest challenge that these expanded national education systems have ever faced. Many governments have ordered institutions to cease face-to-face instruction for most of their students, requiring them to switch, almost overnight, to online teaching and virtual education. This brief note offers pragmatic guidance to teachers, institutional heads and state officials who must manage the educational consequences of this crisis. It addresses: • • • •
Preparations that systems could make Needs of students at different levels and stages Reassurance to students and parents Simple approaches to remote learning
* Sir John Daniel [email protected] 1
Acsenda School of Management, Vancouver, Canada
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Curricula Assessment After COVID-19 Useful resources.
Preparations Most governments played catch-up to the exponential spread of COVID-19, so institutions had very little time to prepare for a remote-teaching regime. Where possible, preparations could have included: • Ensuring that students took home the books, etc., needed for study at home. • Tying up loose ends; e.g., finalizing test results and reports. In the northern hemisphere, many schoolteachers were in the process of predicting grades of year-end exams for submission with students’ applications to tertiary education. Depending on whether they made them before or after the formal suspension of these exams, teachers’ predictions may have been different, creating anxiety for both themselves and their students. • Staff preparation and training: arrangements for safeguarding; division of work between departments; mechanisms for teachers to remain in touch collectively for mutual support; and brief and simple updates on learning technologies already somewhat familiar. Many institutions had plans to make greater use of technology
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