Learning loss is global and significant in online learning

While the response towards education has varied widely due to the pandemic, teachers believe that distant learning has a significant impact, particularly for vulnerable students.

FREMONT, CA: Although each teacher has a different mode of teaching, all the teachers agree in unison that a computer cannot replace a classroom as a place for learning. While many educators are continuing to teach students online, due to the pandemic, at the same time, teachers are also reluctant to return to the in-person mode of instruction until they feel safe. On asking teachers in eight countries to analyse the rate of effectiveness of remote learning, when it was first implemented, between March and July of 2020, they gave it an average score of five out of ten. However, countries like the United States and Japan, gave one and three out of ten.

The pandemic has sparked the largest remote learning experiment in history. While school closures were necessary due to valid public health concerns, data reveals that students have paid a huge price in terms of lost learning. Though remote learning has improved the teaching and learning practices, it has also led to mental health problems among teenagers.

Most educational systems were quick to respond when COVID-19 first became a global epidemic in March 2020.  According to UNESCO, 1.6 billion students were no longer being taught in a physical classroom by mid-April. However, by the time students in the Northern Hemisphere returned to school in the autumn, the consensus had been divided. Some schools decided to return to the classrooms, while others began the new school year online. What went wrong is the most debatable question. To begin with, several school systems created protocols that enabled for safer in-person and hybrid learning. Public health data explicitly states that children are less likely than adults to spread the virus.

Moreover,  forecasts based on previous data on learning loss during school closures raised concerns regarding the toll on learning. Towards the end of August, organizations and publications from the American Academy of Pediatrics to the Economist were urging students to return to school. The World Health Organization made it mandatory that school closures should be considered unless there are no other alternatives. However, leaders and authorities decided to hear that plea depending on various factors that includes, infection rates to resources and popular pressure. Nevertheless, in most nations, the decision to open schools appeared to be as correlated with GDP as with infection rates.