Lockdown – Ep.5 Education Strikes Back

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We’re well and truly into the COVID-19 lockdown and closure at the moment, and there doesn’t seem to be any changes to this on the immediate horizon. Despite alarming and somewhat irresponsible rumours of schools reopening in a matter of weeks (May half-term?), I don’t believe it’ll happen. It’s not that the curve hasn’t flattened enough, it’s just that coronavirus is still in the community. New cases and, unfortunately, more deaths are still being reported. Reopening schools will bring children and their families back into the community, back into contact with potentially infected individuals, spreading the disease further and quicker.

At the present time, education (schools, FE and HE) are suffering. Of this, there is no doubt. Students of all ages are also suffering, and this should not be ignored. My own children are trying to come to terms with not seeing friends, the family is off-limits, they can’t run around and be energetic, they’retrying to understand the changes and why this is being forced on them. Their home, which has always been a safe-haven from the outside world, is now the center of their universe and now their school, their parents’ workplace. While we may have the skills to rationalise this or the ability to divide the space physically and mentally between home/work or home/school, it doesn’t mean they can.

Over the years I’ve developed my own ideas of what makes a short, medium or long-term view/plan. For me a medium-term view has always been between 1-5 years, anything longer has been a long-term view. As I help colleagues get ready for a new semester at Coventry University, these views have changed. They’ve had to, we don’t have the luxury of thinking so far ahead at the moment. At the moment I can see as far as May 2020, the start of the next semester, while trying to keep an eye on the future … September and the start of the next/new academic year.

What does this mean for schools:

  • Short-term: Schools are emailing work to students or loading it to hastily-evaluated online platforms, and have been since lockdown in late-March. This will continue, but at some point, this will change as teachers and heads will realise it’s not working as well as hoped. While the work is being set, how is it being ‘assessed’ – too much, not enough, grading or ‘attendance’ certification, etc. How much help can the children have from parents who have their own work to do, volunteering or looking after family or neighbours? In the short-term, the homework is keeping students engaged and busy, some more than others, but it is not sustainable. Nor is it appropriate to reopen schools until a vaccine is available.
  • Medium-term: What will happen with the September term? For my eldest son, he’s leaving his junior school and joining Year 7. This would be a very bad decision to drop him and his classmates in a new school and a new environment without returning them to their Year 6 for the acclimatisation they need. Children need to return to something they know and understand before more change is inflicted on them. Return all children to their old classes for September 2020. Use the time to the first half-term to get things back on track, then move them on after the October half-term. The mental health of these children is of priority for the school and teachers, and whatever happens here is going to set this generation on a path, therefore it must be sensitively and appropriately managed.
  • Long-term: Not a clue. If this goes on beyond September, even Christmas 2020 then the medium-term is even more important to get right before you can comprehend what a long-term vision might be? The longer children are out of their ‘normal’, the more important it is to get the new ‘normal’ worked out and sensitively structured to minimise anxiety or stress for everyone -children, teachers, parents, etc.

In a similar way, universities are also looking to a similar time-frame for the short, medium and long-term visions. For those who have a three-semester year, like Coventry, this means May 2020 (short-term), September 2020 (medium-term) and January 2021 (long-term). We know what is happening for May, it’s literally weeks away. September is a little different – some universities are already canceling the new academic year for undergraduate starts, some putting more and more online (fully online rather than a holding pattern).

What I do believe, however, is that education (schools, colleges, universities) will bounce back and will learn from this experience. It’s what we do best … if not the senior management and administration, then the teachers, the student experience officers, the learning designers, the teaching assistants. While some will have their minds focused on the economic viability of the organisation (and rightly so), others will be looking at making it easier for the students, considering the accessibility and flexibility for those less able, making sure the outcomes are matched by the input.

In short, this is the time for education to shine, for educators and everyone working in education to rise to the challenge and make a better present, and future, for their students. You may think ‘yeah, sure’. But why not? Why can’t we look to the future, why shouldn’t we aim high(er)?

Image source: Antonio Hidalgo (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)