Not Such a Normal 2020...

It was like a lightswitch. The world had flipped upside down overnight.

                                                      (Torres)


This week I was interested in learning about the educational effects due to COVID-19. The comparisons were from New England to Africa.


The main idea of these articles that I was trying to learn about was that even though kids were pulled out of school, were they still getting a sufficient amount of education that they would have been receiving if they were in school?

What I found was that in New England, even though students were taken out of school immediately, we (U.S./New England) at least had the technology to quickly adapt to an online environment. However,  Africa, for example, doesn't have the same amount of resources (technology/wifi/hotspots) as the US does. With such an impact as big as this one, students in Africa were not getting the same level of learning that they should have been receiving.



                                                                        (Patrinos)


Africa:

Children Receiving No Education (Impact of Covid-19), that was the headline that caught my attention. After schools closed across the world, the majority of them started to eventually transition to an online-based or even to a hybrid mode. But as for Africa, not even close. Schools closed and stayed that way - no education was being taught to students from that point on. Comments stated below are from parents who are expressing their concern for their children's future and what's at stake.

“My child is no longer learning, she is only waiting for the reopening to continue with her studies,” said a mother of a 9-year-old girl in eastern Congo. A mother of two preschool-aged children in North Kivu, Congo, said, “It does not make me happy that my children are no longer going to school. Years don’t wait for them. They have already lost a lot... What will become of our uneducated children?” Lusenge K., 16, also from Congo, said in June she had no education after schools closed, and was concerned that she would not enter her final school year: “Lockdown is not good for me”(Impact of Covid-19).



                                                                            (Africa)

For kids, especially those in High School, getting ready for your future is super important and without those essential tools to advance in the real world, life is going to be a bit of a struggle. So by not getting at least any sort of guidance/information is a concern. As it is, Africa is not even within the Top 10 for educational rankings. In fact, "there are nations with inadequate educational systems. This notion could be due to internal conflict, economic problems, or underfunded programs" (Education Rankings). The Central African Republic is even listed on one of the worst education systems.

   “Children are not taught during this period,” said an education official in Congo in June echoing        the experiences of many children across the continent. Although some students had received             printed assignments, she said, “We cannot say that this is normal education.” One Congolese student told us, for example, “We were just told to regularly reread our notes while waiting for new instructions from the authorities… At first, I thought school would start again soon so I didn’t read my notes and then when I saw that it was going to go on, I started to read them. I’d forgotten a lot”(Impact of Covid-19).


I thought this was really interesting because compared to the more local aspect within the United States, Africa has very little to go off of. Sure there are some places towards the bigger cities and more down in South Africa where they have more resources, however for the rest of the children growing up in rural areas in the continent, there’s no education being taught to them.


Learning about Africa’s loss of education made me wonder if the United States education system, more pointed towards New England, was as just in jeopardy as Africa’s or did we have it better?

New England:


While looking for information about how the New England side was holding up for the education loss, I found a website that talked about what was happening to students during the instant switch and how it’s affecting them. “It imposed substantial alterations in the “inputs” used to produce education—typically all the individual, family, teacher, school, etc., characteristics or determinants that affect “outcomes” like test scores and graduation rates” (García). Students' futures are coming to an immediate halt because they are not receiving the right amount of information that they would be getting if it had been a normal school year. However, 2020 was far from normal as we can all see.

García states that “While we do not know the exact impacts, we do know that children’s academic performance is deteriorating during the pandemic, along with their progress on other developmental skills.”


Chronic absenteeism has also played a huge role in transitioning to full remote learning. In an article I read in the Concord Monitor it talked about Concord High School and Rundlett Middle School's attendance rate falling. “District data from October to November shows an attendance rate of 85% for remote students at Rundlett and 87% for remote students at Concord High, which is about 10 percent lower compared to a usual school year”(O’Grady). With attendance already dropping within the first 4 months of school what’s going to happen by the time we reach the end of the year?


Throughout the articles that I have read about learning different ways that students are adjusting to the switch, it has made me realize the significant difference between Africa and more local areas within the United States, specifically New Hampshire/New England. The major difference being that we have access to somewhat a remote learning style, while Africa struggles very much with nothing.


Have you felt that the results of Covid-19 have affected your learning? If so comment below.

                                                                            Works Cited

Africa: The Risks of Reopening Schools during the Coronavirus Pandemic. 7 May 2020. Aide et Action, seac.aide-et-action.org/africa-coronavirus-pandemic/. Accessed 5 Jan. 2021.

"Education Rankings by Country 2020." World Population Review, 2020, worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/education-rankings-by-country. Accessed 4 Jan. 2021.

García, Emma, and Elaine Weiss. "COVID-19 and student performance, equity, and U.S. education policy." Economic Policy Institute, www.epi.org/publication/the-consequences-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-for-education-performance-and-equity-in-the-united-states-what-can-we-learn-from-pre-pandemic-research-to-inform-relief-recovery-and-rebuilding/#:~:text=In%20early%20spring%20as%20the,2020).

"Impact of Covid-19 on Children's Education in Africa." Human Rights Watch, 26 Aug. 2020, www.hrw.org/news/2020/08/26/impact-covid-19-childrens-education-africa#. Accessed 4 Jan. 2021.

O'Grady, Eileen, editor. "Attendance Rates Lagging as Concord Schools Remain Remote." Concord Monior, 8 Dec. 2020, www.concordmonitor.com/Attendance-Concord-schools-37671767. Accessed 4 Jan. 2021.

Patrinos, Harry A., and Tigran Shims. Student during a Home-School Literature Class. 23 Mar. 2020. World Bank Blogs, blogs.worldbank.org/europeandcentralasia/can-technology-help-mitigate-impact-covid-19-education-systems-europe-and. Accessed 5 Jan. 2021.

Torres, Stacey. Teaching for 50 Years Did Not Prepare Me for the Coronavirus. 30 Apr. 2020. USA Today, www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/04/30/coronavirus-school-closings-lifelong-consequences-teens-column/3047910001/. Accessed 5 Jan. 2021.