Gaps in learning

PETALING JAYA: While parents will heave a sigh of relief when their children return to school on Jan 20, many also worry about the lack of progress the youngsters have achieved.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a major disruption on schooling. Schools have been forced to cancel classes periodically last year, and the annual holidays began earlier than usual on Nov 9. This left the children with little or no guidance.

Secondary school teacher Sri Priya is one parent who has expressed concern about her child’s schooling.

“My son had barely started to get a hold of the concept of schooling when he was forced to switch to home-based learning.”

She said while the boy has developed hands-on skills through the internet, he has yet to fully grasp reading, writing, listening and speaking, all of which are part of the syllabus.

Self-learning has not been easy for the boy but fortunately for him, his mother is a teacher and he has become quite dependent on her to help him with his online lessons.

Priya also makes sure he completes his tasks.

“At home, he has easy access to his gadgets and these have become a major distraction,” she said.

“Instead of paying close attention during his online classes, he seems to waver frequently.”

Priya said a physical approach to learning is better for younger children.

“Older children are more adept at home or online learning but this should not be done on a permanent basis.”

Data engineer Kevin Johnson’s two children, a girl aged seven and a boy aged 11, are not enjoying their time away from school.

“They miss the social interaction they can have at school.”

He said the children also tend to sleep in because they do not have to wake up early to go to school, adding that his daughter is having difficulty in reading and writing since online classes work entirely on a keyboard.

“It does not help to develop the skills of holding a pencil or pen and writing at a fair speed,” he said.

To make up for the inadequacy, Johnson bought his children extra books to read and together with his wife, sit through YouTube videos for science lessons.

“We coach our daughter in math to make sure she is not left behind when school reopens. But as parents, we do not know how to do this as well as teachers. The best we can do is coach our children to rewrite words and sentences from text books and we read stories with them to sharpen their reading skills,” he added.

On the bright side, his daughter has picked up visual and creative skills while his son has learned to be less dependent and more disciplined.

At the Yeosham Education Centre, primary school children have been making good progress through online learning, according to its director Velavan Arumugam.

At its online classes, children are required to construct sentences and write short essays.

“As graders, we assess their work and provide relevant remarks. To our surprise, most of the students have been outstanding. They have come up with well-written essays.”

Velavan said most students are able to perform basic arithmetic computations but are still having trouble solving problems.

He added that while many students have excelled through online classes, some have found it difficult to cope because of the absence of one-on-one coaching.

Some students have even come to see online classes as an unreal learning experience.

This issue can perhaps be easily addressed when the children return to school less than two weeks from now.

On the bright side, his daughter has picked up visual and creative skills while his son has also learned to be less dependent on them and is now more disciplined.

At the Yeosham Education Centre, primary school children have been making good progress through online learning, according to its director Velavan Arumugam.

Children are required to construct sentences and write short essays at its online classes.

“As graders, we assess their work and provide relevant remarks.

“To our surprise, most of the students have been outstanding. They have come up with well-written essays.”

Velavan said most students are able to perform basic arithmetic computations but are still having trouble solving problems.

He added that while many students have excelled through online classes, some have found it difficult to cope because of the absence of one-on-one coaching.

Some students have even come to see online classes as an unreal learning experience.

This issue can perhaps be easily addressed when the children return to school less than two weeks from now.

Source: TheSunDaily