By Terris Phillips, Student at Coolidge High School.
According to data available from numerous sources, including Brookings.edu, mckinsey.com, and voxeu.org, by the end of the 2020-21 school year, students were on average five months behind in math and four months behind in reading due to COVID-19. The pandemic has changed how teaching and learning occur, from face-to-face to virtual, using various online learning applications.
Online education has the potential to serve students in new ways and, perhaps, students that are older and have more familial, financial, and work-related responsibilities compared to on-campus students. However, in a relatively short period of time, the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the educational landscape.
According to information from the United Nations, 2020, the pandemic has caused the most significant disruption to education systems in history. School closures have affected 1.6 billion learners (94% of the world’s student population) in more than 190 countries. School closures have placed unprecedented pressure on governments, educational institutions, educators, parents and students to ensure learning continuity. Countries around the globe rapidly ended in-person classes and shifted instruction to various types of virtual settings.
This massive mandatory shift has been accompanied by a global surge of research on various aspects of remote and online education dictated by the pandemic. Another important theme discussed by people concerned with the abrupt transition to online education deals with the need for pedagogic flexibility to ensure that students’ well-being and access to equitable and inclusive learning environments are given prominent attention. How can we meet these needs How will education change next?
