Addressing challenges in remote learning

Do our children understand educational materials on remote learning compared to offline classes? We won't know the extent of their knowledge gained in the previous school year, but surveys could provide an insight. According to a survey from Kaspersky, a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company, the hardest subjects to learn remotely for children in the Asia Pacific Countries are the exact and natural sciences: mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology. This trend is almost the same across other regions globally. More than half of the students found it difficult to understand their materials compared to face-to-face learning. Playing and talking with their peers between classes are activities they miss. Another survey from Movement for Safe, Equitable, Quality and Relevant Education (SEQuRE) conducted last month showed most students believe they "learned less" under the remote learning setup. Findings revealed that 86.7 percent of students under modular learning, 66 percent under online learning and 74 percent under blended learning said they learned less compared with face-to-face classes.

The survey confirmed my personal experience with Emily (not her real name), the 12-year-old daughter of our housekeeper, who felt she needed extra tutoring for math during the school break. Though a smart student with honors, math was a challenge to learn. Imagine studying math by yourself? I don't know how other public schools teach math in blended learning or modular learning. Checking the homework was not even done. I could understand the difficulty of the teacher showing equations or problems on Facebook Messenger. Teachers might need to master new teaching skills or develop better educational materials for remote learning during the break because some kids are not learning. Emily turned to YouTube for tutorials, but there is no validation from her teacher. To ensure that Emily learned the basics of Grade 7 math, my good friend agreed to tutor her during the break. I also searched for other resources to address learning gaps.