We talk to Gen.T honourees Anna Alejo, an education consultant for the World Bank, and Henry Motte-Munoz, the founder of Edukasyon.com, about how the pandemic has impacted education
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, academic institutions have faced a multitude of hurdles. With the cancellation of in-person classes, traditional academic environments were flipped on their heads. This was especially challenging for younger students, who may not be as capable of learning independently. But students of all ages, say experts, benefit from interacting with others as they make their way through middle and high school.
“Students have had to adapt to new ways of learning—which is no small feat, especially as remote learning was something most students probably did not have experience with pre-pandemic. For many, this meant quickly adapting to using digital technologies like online learning platforms, as well as developing their self-motivation. This also included learning how to build relationships and engage with teachers and friends through virtual means,” says Anna Alejo, an education consultant to the World Bank.
Alejo says that online learning can have a potentially negative impact on a child's socio-emotional development. “In addition to its effect on learning outcomes, remote learning may affect the way students build socio-emotional skills like self-motivation, self-control and forming positive relationships.”
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Henry Motte-Munoz, founder of Filipino online learning platform Edukasyon.com, says that aside from these challenges, digital learning also has a number of benefits. “The pandemic has affected education in so many ways but, while under such unfortunate circumstances, it has actually enabled the education sector to accelerate a lot of positive trends for digitised learning—building systems for remote classes, online and multimedia modules and other tools that train students to become self-motivated learners.”
A question of access
However, while students and teachers can participate in digital classes wherever they are, the experience and quality of a streamed class is completely dependent on a persons access to technology and high speed internet. In a number of countries in Southeast Asia, such as the Philippines, many public school students do not own tablets or laptops and cannot easily access the internet.
“Most Filipinos, many families, are not equipped with proper resources to manage an effective work- or learn-from-home environment. For those who adapted to remote classes, there’s the constant challenge of Zoom fatigue, time and energy management, and the overall learning curve they are facing together with their teachers and parents,” Motte-Munoz explains.