How I think schools around the world have addressed learning during the pandemic.

When I signed up for an elocution competition that was being held in my school, My first thought was that the topic would be around the lines of online learning. Though what I predicted came true, the way they phrased the topic made me think a bit more. Honestly, I thought it would be easy to think about online learning and how I have experienced it. But, again the way they phrased it changed my perspective of the topic. The topic was: 

How do you think schools around the world have addressed learning during the pandemic.  

My expectation was that it would be about my experience, but the topic asked me about what I think about how schools have addressed learning during the pandemic. The fact that they were giving us 11 and 12-year-olds the opportunity to express our opinions on such a worldly matter, left me pleasantly surprised. After some thinking, here is what I wrote for my speech:

I have a question for all: which do you prefer? Online or physical learning?

This pandemic has had a great impact and lasting effects. One of the things that have been impacted the most is communication for work school and college. As students, we have all felt this impact. That brings me to today’s topic: how do you think schools around the world should address learning during the pandemic.  When a worldwide lockdown was issued last year, all schools have summed up the situation and taken their necessary course of action. Teachers and staff alike have worked hard to give us a schedule that would cover all the things that we would do if attending school physically. Today, I will be elaborating on how I think schools have handled learning during the pandemic.

As I mentioned before, communication was one of the main impacted areas in online learning.

Technology has made sure that we have different platforms like Zoom and Google Meet for face to face communication in large numbers, but a platform like Edmodo where students can have a quick way of asking doubts or posting homework is also necessary. Though our school is fortunate to have such a platform, many schools lack the resourcefulness to find and set-up a platform like this. Many can't afford to do so.

An advantage of having it online is that teachers can use numerous tools that substitute for having a board to explain or visualize the topic.  This helps us tremendously when learning virtually. Again, in my opinion, many schools don’t have such tools to help in teaching. Tools as simple as Google's virtual Jamboard can be used. These are free and simple to use, but teachers aren’t trained to use them and might not understand technology enough to use them. This applies to the students too.

 

Though schools have worked hard to make sure that online learning is a fun experience, it can never be the same as having the excitement of learning physically. I shifted to a new school last year, and it was a big disappointment to me that I couldn’t meet my classmates and teachers physically.

 

If you think that this was hard on us then just imagine how it is for underprivileged children! While we have phones, laptops and other gadgets, those children can't even afford a working phone or a stable internet connection to join classes. The new helper in my house has 2 children both around our age. Because they didn’t have phones, they weren't been able to attend school for nearly a year! If you think no school for a year sounds appealing, you are wrong. While schools have done their best to make sure underprivileged children can attend school, I think they could have taken a slightly different approach. At least now that the vaccines have started coming out. I think they can take physical classes for children in small batches and keep it in outdoor spaces. This exception can be made for underprivileged children. For some children, school was a safe, secure and happy place. Government schools provide food for underprivileged children in schools. Now that it is online, they aren’t able to help these children in any way.

Another obstacle in online learning is the amount of screen time every day. Different schools have made different schedules that work for the children and give them ample breaks to rest their eyes. I think all schools have managed the timings and schedules well.

 

Lastly, though we refer to the social workers as the heroes during the pandemic, I think teachers are heroes too! They have worked hard to make school fun for us, and never fail to come and teach us, against all odds.

 

This is how I think schools have addressed learning during the pandemic. I hope that we get to meet each other soon. 

//end of my speech.

I won second place for this speech. I hope you enjoyed it too.