THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE EDUCATIONAL SECTOR

THE IMPACT OF COVID – 19 ON THE EDUCATIONAL SECTOR(UNEDITED)

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The COVID – 19 pandemic is undoubtedly a health crisis. This has stimulated and escalated many countries to take drastic measures in curbing this menace. Many sectors of the country were affected by this measures. These sectors however does not exclude the educational sector.
The impact of this pandemic on the educational sectors is one that cannot be overlooked. The pandemic crystallizes the dilemma policymakers are facing between closing down schools and keeping them opened. If the choice is the former, then they opted for reducing contacts and saving life against the later which interpret as allowing workers to work and maintaining the economy. A tough decision to ever make; since both choices has its own downsides. The choice made by many countries was the former. What then are the possible outcomes?

The positive impact may include but not limited to the following analytic assumptions;
The COVID – 19 pandemic has broaden our scope of the digital world. Many educational institutions are using technology and adopting to online tuitions. This is a positive impact. The educational sector is thus exploring more on digital ways of teaching and this will go a long way to help the sector.

In addition, the educational sector have thus discovered a new approach or technique in the teaching and learning process. They have added yet another means of transferring information to the students. The crisis is in short has given the educational sector the opportunity to unravel endless possibilities in the digital world.

The pandemic as every disaster does, came unannounced and therefore made the educational sector unprepared for an adventure like this. In effect the challenges or the negative impact of COVID – 19 on the educational sector. The challenges for me is as at now outweighing the positive impacts since Ghana is not well equipped or acclimatized with online tuition and its related technicalities.

The negative impacts includes but not limited to the following evident facts;
Accessibility to educational materials. It is the first time such thing is happening and the educational sector is trying all possible ways of making the relevant materials readily available to its subscribed beneficiaries. However, some students are not able to access these materials due to their inability to possess the required gadgets that can help them to do so. If education is indeed a right, then each and everyone must benefit from it and not a selected few. Some have no access to smartphones, laptops or whatsoever to be able to access these materials which is a big blow to the face of the educational sector.

Again, even those with the required gadgets battles with data bundles day in and day out. The cost of data package in Africa and Ghana to be precise is very expensive as compared to other western countries. Data prices are draining the little coins the students have all in an attempt to be hooked on onto the online tuition. For how long can they continue to purchase this data bundles if this pandemic persist? Some universities have had an agreement with some telecommunication networks to provide data package to their students at a cost in the account of the universities; also making the portals free to be accessed by all. This is the best option and very good initiative but once again, if education is indeed a right, then it must apply to all not some. This is yet another big punch to the face of the educational sector.

To continue, some students have the smartphones and data bundles but are facing a critical challenge in connecting to the internet. Some have no access at all or very poor connection or slow and “jammed” connections. This is in fact one of the major headache in this era. Connectivity in Ghana and Africa as a whole is very poor. Even with some Telcos, internet connectivity is impossible. Those is these areas have to trek miles to secure a good spot with internet access to be able to browse and in doing this, they are exposed to the virus; if they do not embark on this peril too, they are lacking behind. Hmmm….God see us all through this. This is again another core negative impact to the educational sector.

To proceed further, the issue of assessment is one big challenge the educational sector is facing. With educational institutions closed, some are contemplating on changing from their traditional mode of assessment to a less inferior ones. The possible mode of assessment now points to online assessment which is currently having a lot of trials and errors between the teachers and students. They are battling it out fiercely. Other educational institutions are holding on onto their assessment until the pandemic normalize and schools opened. Some school of thought also suggest we embark on the use of “predicted grades” but a prove by Murphy and Wyness (2020) shows that, these are often inaccurate and that among high achieving students, the predicted grades for those from disadvantaged background are lower than those from more advantaged backgrounds. This however leaves the assessment a puzzle for the educational sector to solve.

The last thing I would probably talk about is the impact of this COVID – 19 on schools and family. Going to school is the best public policy tool available to raise skills. While school time can be fun and can raise social skills and social awareness, from an economic point of view the primary point of being in school is that it increases a child’s ability. Even a relatively short time in school does this; even a relatively short period of missed school will have consequences for skill growth.

This notwithstanding, the children are home with their parent and this means that homeschooling. So while global home schooling will surely produce some inspirational moments, some angry moments, some fun moments and some frustrated moments, it seems very unlikely that it will on average replace the learning lost from school. But the bigger point is this: there will likely be substantial disparities between families in the extent to which they can help their children learn. Key differences include (Oreopoulos et al. 2006) the amount of time available to devote to teaching, the non-cognitive skills of the parents, resources (for example, not everyone will have the kit to access the best online material), and also the amount of knowledge – it’s hard to help your child learn something that you may not understand yourself. Consequently, this episode will lead to an increase in the inequality of human capital growth for the affected cohorts. A tough one out there.
Some private teachers are however battling with their employers for their salaries. This is a major challenge to the educational sector.

In summary, the novel coronavirus is teaching the educational sectors a lot of lessons and we should open our eyes widely and learn accordingly. The COVID – 19 is having a highly negative impact on the educational sector and has handed to the policymakers their worst nightmares.



Written by:
Isaac Cobbinah
(Ink of De_Governor)