October 5, 2020 marks World Teachers’ Day and this year, particularly, we want to recognize the immense contributions teachers make in our lives and to our futures. Teachers are among the many unsung heroes of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, as parents got a glimpse into teachers’ day to day realities when suddenly faced with closed schools and their children at home.
Like many countries around the world faced with rising cases of Coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19), classroom instruction in the Philippines is shifting to remote learning. For 22,668,397 Filipino children [1] there will in all likelihood be no face-to-face classroom instruction for the duration of the 2020-2021 school year [2]. And like all countries committing to fully remote learning, a key question is whether the education system is ready for remote learning for all? The
When the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) hit Liberia, prompting the Government to declare a state of emergency in March 2020, Liberian students joined the more than 91% of students worldwide[1] who overnight entered a new world. This new world, one of closed schools and a scramble to transition to virtual learning, more fully benefits children and youth with immediate access to resources such as personal tutors or online learning content. By default, it also puts at further risk
Before the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic struck, the USAID-funded Malawi Early Grade Reading Improvement Activity (MERIT) had a plan to train 17,600 instructional leaders in a 2-day refresher course on how to facilitate teacher learning circles. When the pandemic’s travel restrictions prevented us from proceeding as planned, the MERIT team quickly began thinking of ways to provide training remotely. MERIT chose interactive voice response (IVR) as the best option, combined with small group discussions.
Whether schools are reopening or continue to be closed with some form of virtual instruction, it is clear that school systems are facing tremendous changes. For this new reality, aside from family and student well-being and student academic growth, we also need need to place emphasis and consideration on our teachers. This includes their well-being, their support, and their training.
