Education quality during the pandemic.

Quality of life for Students in the Pandemic Era.

Education and quality of life for children and adolescents in the pandemic era.

The development problem of preschoolers.

According to UNESCO’s definition, “pre-primary education” means regular education for infants aged 3-5. Education institutions for preschoolers talk about social skills and learn and practice the thinking process, focusing on various physical activities based on peer and teacher interactions and play. These pre-school early childhood education institutions play a more critical role, especially for disabled children and children from families with low socioeconomic status. They help them develop physical, intellectual, and emotional skills that need to be acquired by the development period. This is because repetitive learning through one-on-one guidance is important for disabled infants to learn basic intellectual skills for post-school, such as self-management, sociality, reading and counting. In addition, public care and education are more critical because infants from families with low socioeconomic status are often thoroughly cared for and not supplied with sufficient nutrition in a safe space.

However, with schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, pre-school early childhood education institutions, which are not included in the regular compulsory curriculum, will not open. The aftermath goes straight to the children. One parent expressed anxiety about the situation in which her daughter, who was diagnosed with autism spectrum, is not learning many things before entering elementary school, and said, “I think we should apply for a grace period for the school.” In addition, a daycare centre teacher in the United States said, “Since infants are young, they think they will learn anything again and recover quickly, but not necessarily.” The age of 3-5 is a significant time to learn the social context, culture, and behavioural style in which learning takes place,” he said.

Academic loss and recovery problems caused by the suspension of school.

The problem of academic recovery is not just for infants. Longer breaks from the study do not stop acquiring knowledge and skills but tend to regress. According to a study in the United States, this phenomenon was noticeable during the three-month summer vacation in the United States. When returning from summer vacation, white students fall behind by an average of 1-3 months in math subjects and non-white students by an average of 3-5 months. I have to make progress in the new school year, but I almost forgot everything I learned in the previous semester. If this is the case usually, the aftermath of long-term class deficits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will be severe. Another problem is that students from families with lower socioeconomic status tend to regress more severely.

A math teacher in the United States emphasised that math is a subject that needs teacher help in class, saying, “The only students who have studied the course until the end of the semester are, of the first and second graders of middle school.” A reading guidance teacher in Oregon, USA, expressed concern about the difficulty in academic management due to school suspension, saying, “It is important to have regular reading habits in elementary school because it becomes difficult to keep up with basic matters such as phonics and grammar.”

The problem of adolescents’ discontinuation from school.

Another problem is that the number of teenagers who quit school increases as the suspension period increases. In September 2020, UNICEF predicted that about 2.4 million students worldwide would leave school. In particular, this trend is intensifying in Southwest Asian countries, sub-Saharan African countries, and regions with a large population seeking to escape from civil war. As the household economy of vulnerable families worsens due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teenagers may have to enter the labour market and completely let go of their weak academic ties.

A teacher in Central Africa has a student who sells fish (to help with housework). Even if the school opens, the student won’t come,” he said. In addition, a teacher in Cameroon said that the number of students reaching 50-55 per class before school suspension plunged to 15-20 per class after school resumed. Of the 18 graduates, only four or five returned to school. “After more than two months of break, students completely lost interest in their studies.”

The absence of public intervention for a safe and healthy life.

Public education is responsible for the development of infants, school-age children, and adolescents’ studies. Schools are also responsible for appropriate intervention and coordination so that children can live safely and healthily. Schools provide meals with a balanced diet and essential medical checkups and psychological counselling. It also plays a role in closely monitoring abuse situations at home and intervening when appropriate.

However, as school suspension continues due to the pandemic, such minimum safety nets often do not correctly. There is not much that teachers can do in the face of abusive language from parents who hear from school or school meals, parents who physically punish children who do not perform the assignments given by teachers, and parents who attend abuse beyond the remote class monitor. Due to the suspension of school meals, measures such as preparing simple food for children skipping meals and having them come to school to take them, but problems such as children having to walk a long distance and receive food have arisen again. Children who have to stay with their families all day long do not have a place to report even if they are abused, and even if they say, there are cases where there is no other way but to move around their relatives’ houses.

As we have seen so far, the COVID-19 pandemic has an irreversible impact on children and adolescents’ development, study, and quality of life in their growth period.

Source: Trinity Tuition College (www.trinitytuitioncollege.com.au)

Written by: Donghyeon Lee