Full time parent or full time teacher? How are working parents these days supervising their children’s classes?
V-DOSE Education brought together a panel of experts to tackle discussing what educating children from home is like in this new-normal.
The reality is that most parents are working full-time and do not have the funds nor resources to get tutors. This means that a large number of students will be unable to learn properly. It is not as if parents don't want to help - trust us, they do. There is simply not enough time in the day to juggle a full-time job and supervising school lesson plans. Another issue is that most parents are not trained teachers. It is a true (perhaps undervalued) skill to be able to teach. The amount of patience, diligence, and enthusiasm needed is laudable. Many of us will be completely out of practice when it comes to schoolwork. Algebra? Calculus? Biology? Chemistry? Help!
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, Chairman of the Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture shared that “schools in the Philippines will focus on distance learning. Depending on where you are, there can be blended learning, online learning only, or something modular.” He added that around “90 per cent of kids in the Philippines go to public school. Twenty-three million public school children need to learn how to absorb lessons from DepEd in this new format of teaching.” The struggle is truly massive and is being felt the world over, but all the more amplified for us here in the country due to socio-economic disparities and weak technological infrastructure. Senator Gatchalian says that “less than 47 per cent of public school children have access to the Internet let alone gadgets. In rural areas, these numbers can go below 10 per cent!”
“There is still a long way to go for the Philippines,” shares Gen. T honouree Henry Motte-Munoz, CEO and Founder of Edukasyon.ph. As a player in the education industry, particularly in the digital space, Edukasyon aims to connect more students to their academic needs. Henry too believes that for us, there is really an infrastructural challenge.
ENGAGEMENT
On top of these more macro problems facing students and educators, he thinks that a hurdle in the way of making virtual classrooms and blended learning successful is one's ability to engage with the student and sustain motivation. “There simply are more temptations when you are at home. Students need to feel connected to the classroom but how do you do that when you are physically removed?” Henry shares - outlining some obvious but majorly important items. “It is hard to keep a pulse on engagement levels across the virtual classroom.” He explained that no matter what it will be more of a challenge to monitor where everyone is at in terms of understanding the lesson. The teacher will have a difficult time checking if students are even listening. He adds some advice saying that “the closer you mimic the digital consumption of students the more you will engage them. Short content, games, and lots of visuals tend to do better. Going to the level of what students consume outside of school, will be more appealing to them.”
