Schools will remain closed until August 1- for the next three months. Parents and students are worried about this long period of disruption, particularly the more vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.
The population want to hear from the Minister of Education about the coverage of remote learning, the engagement of the students, the feedback from teachers and parents, the monitoring of the different online strategies and the quality of the programmes and also allay their apprehensions that the online strategies may be reaching only children from better-off families and how to maintain the engagement of children, particularly young secondary school students .
Is remote learning ensuring the continuity of education for all ?
There are many children who do not have a desk, books, internet connectivity, a laptop at home, or supportive parents. Is remote learning not amplifying the the vast inequality of opportunities that already exists in our education system ?
How do we minimize these differences in opportunities and prevent the crisis to have an even larger negative effect on poor children’s learning for another three months?
How about the school feeding programs that provided children with their most nutritious meal of the day. They are essential for the cognitive development and well-being. What are we doing if the delivering of these are not feasible logistically?
Is the Ministry of Education working with parents, to provide tips and advice on how to better support their children’s leaning ? (Families are central to education and are widely agreed to provide major inputs into both a child’s learning and his/her learning environment)
Is there someone on board there at the Ministry of Education?
