Colin Steer | Cooperation, creativity and challenges in education amid COVID-19

Public reaction to the initial threat of the coronavirus (COVID-19) was predictably mixed. While international news of the contagion across continents helped people to appreciate that this was not restricted to a particular region, not many people saw this as likely to affect Jamaica or the Caribbean in a big way. Local anxiety increased significantly, however, once it was confirmed that Jamaica had an imported case. Within hours, the public-education system became one of the chief areas of concern.

In fact, even before the confirmation of a local case, people were calling the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information (MoEYI) asking: When are you going to close schools? If you do, what about the continuing education of students? What are the implications for national exams?

Senior officers of the ministry began developing a number of strategies driven by the prescient observation of the minister with oversight responsibility, the Hon. Karl Samuda, that “this was not a matter of if it will reach Jamaica, but when!”

Out of a series of meetings among senior officers and stakeholders, the ministry drafted a number of steps to be taken as part of its Emergency in Education alert system to help guide school administrators, parents, and the wider society in actions to be taken depending on the levels of public-health threat.

In a subsequent meeting with the leadership of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association on March 11, ministry officials, led by Minister Samuda, presented a wide range of measures that would be necessary if schools were closed. The next day, March 12, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced the closure of schools for an initial 14-day period.

Ministry officers appreciate that most parents are not teachers trained in curriculum and content delivery, and as such, the EiE plan did not prescribe a reliance entirely on parents acting as teachers. It was also recognised that there was uneven access to electronic equipment and internet resources to enable all students to make use of online classes.

The ministry’s three-tiered system outlined to the schools via its well-established and utilised Schools Bulletin and shared with the public through traditional and social media included:

. Ensuring that teachers and caregivers are provided with support for children’s continued learning regardless of where this took place – in a classroom, at home, or outdoors;

. School leaders being asked to create online spaces to facilitate communication and sharing of learning materials, especially for students who are unwell or sitting exit exams, e.g., via WhatsApp groups;

. Schools being equipped with school management systems equipped with features to support learning and ongoing communication;

. Teachers being trained in using online learning platforms and in developing online assessments and who would be called on to prepare learning materials in support of continued learning engagement for students who may not be able to attend school;

. Some students would be supplied with tablets with appropriate content uploaded to support learning while out of school;

. Developing partnerships with Internet service providers to provide free data service at specific times during each day;

. Partnership with EduFocal and Cheetah to provide online teaching and learning material and one-on-one communication for modem/data cards to be used in remote areas;

. Partnership with exit exam bodies to delay examination schedule where necessary;

. Rescheduling MoEYI national exams and calendar activities where necessary;

. Extending the school year or extending the school days to make up for lost time where necessary;

. Deploying the ministry’s trauma teams to schools to provide counselling and psycho-social and emotional support where required;

. Having media broadcasts at specific times each day on varied learning topics and coping strategies for those in need of psycho-social care.

In addition, the ministry’s Core Curriculum Unit had already started preparing online learning kits for uploads on the MoEYI’s websites. PEP Practices booklets and PEP Camp Workbooks had also been prepared for electronic distribution to support continued preparation. Hard copies (i.e. printed material) would have also been available for distribution to students, with the help of school representatives, at regional offices and through the Quality Education Circles. Many school leaders and teachers responded with commendable cooperation and students, parents, and teachers have expressed appreciation.

Schools at the secondary level that were already using supplementary online resources such as Edmodo or Google classroom were better able to take advantage of these avenues. Some were proactive and developed timetables, requiring students to log in at specific times.

Partnerships

To ensure that children without Internet access were not left behind, the ministry developed partnerships with local media houses for scheduled classes to be broadcast throughout the day. To date, the ministry has committed $30 million for online and broadcast media (TV and radio) support in putting together emergency-education solutions in the wake of the closure of schools. In addition, another $34 million has been spent providing products to help sanitise schools.

For their part, some teachers prepared assignments and used their usual WhatsApp PTA contact groups and sent instructions on how the completed work should be done and returned to them via different online platforms where applicable. Others scheduled classes using Zoom or WebEx platforms.

There have been complaints about patchy Internet service on some days, children and their parents being unfamiliar with the platforms and, therefore, not using them as they should or just not having any Internet access at all. In addition, there were complaints of “too much work” being sent in an unstructured way. We should be careful, however, not to make the ideal the enemy of the good. Given the current protocols and directives to practise social distancing, and the rapidity with which action had to be taken, choices were either not to have any classes at all during the lockdown period or endanger students’ and the general population’s health by having people meet for classes.

With regard to providing meals for students on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), the education ministry, through Nutrition Products Limited and with additional support from Restaurants Associates, Restaurants of Jamaica, and the Wysinco Group have provided thousands of meals to students across the island.

In short, the ministry anticipated the challenges and moved to address them with the cooperation of parents, teachers, and corporate Jamaica. We are in a crisis. Undoubtedly, there are gaps and challenges, but much more can be achieved through cooperation and creativity among schools administrators, parents, and teachers working with the Education Ministry.

- Colin Steer is Director, Corporate Communication in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information. Email feedback to colin.steer@moey.gov.jm and columns@gleanerjm.com.