Education, like most of the institutions in the world, weren’t prepared to deal with the Covid-19 crisis. While some schools/districts had made plans to deal with a protracted crisis, most had not.
- Front line educators hadn’t been given adequate training in delivering distance learning.
- Parents hadn’t been given training in how to address their children’s learning needs for a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week.
- School Administrators and Secretaries of Education had failed to develop contingency plans in the advent that schools would be closed for protracted period of time, like an entire school year.
- Politicians had failed to insure that there was stable Internet in the nation so that children and parents could learn remotely.
- ‘Telephone trees” hadn’t been established to insure that clear lines of communication existed between parents and schools.
- Many mobile electronic devices, if schools had ordered them, sat in warehouses and not in student’s hands.
The lack of preparation led to calamitous events. Educators, parents and students attempted to adjust quickly…
- Distance and hybrid learning plans were developed.
- Mobile electronic sites using school buses were set up.
- “Chromebooks” or Ipads were distributed.
- Teachers attempted to rapidly learn how to deliver learning remotely.
- Mothers were forced to leave the workforce to care for their children as long as the schools remained closed to in person learning.
- As a result of layoffs, the economy slowed.
- The shortage of educators in classrooms was intensified as frontline educators (teachers and school administrators) was made worse by retirements, or educators who had to take care of their own children and were concerned for their own health about catching the virus.
Problems still exist today. Most students haven’t been vaccinated.
How do schools:
- Measure the performance of students?
- Give credit for students, who, through no fault of their own, were unable to access the Internet?
- Prepare kindergarten and first-grade children who are entering school for the first time?
- Grant credit to high school seniors who were scheduled to graduate high school and go on to college?
- Familiarize students with teachers and school layouts when they enter middle and high school?
- Train new teachers who have just graduated schools of education.
- How do students with special needs make up the instruction they missed?
Schools need to develop contingency plans to address the next crisis. While these plans may not be perfect, they would be better than creating a vacuum.