Entrenching distance learning or lifting ban?
" Just one week after a third of French schools went back to school in an easing of the Coronavirus lockdown, there has been a worrying flare-up of about 70 COVID-19 cases linked to schools, the government said Monday. " (Thomas Adamson, May 18, 2020).
The above quotation shows how the easing of restrictions on public gatherings in France led to worrying increases in COVID-19 cases in a developed country like France.
Considering the repercussions of the pandemic, it may not be advisable for President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo to lift the ban on public gatherings and allow both private and public schools to reopen.
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Following the closure of schools globally as a response to the pandemic, UNESCO recommended the use of distance learning programmes and open educational applications and platforms to reach learners remotely and limit the disruption of education.
What can our leaders do during this educational shift from school to home? How can the government, through the Ghana Education Service (GES), address the needs of students in remote locations, with little or no access to the Internet?
The GES introduced Distance Learning for Basic Schools on Ghana Learning TV and Joy Learning Channel to promote continuous teaching/learning in the wake of COVID-19.
That is commendable, however, Parliament should enact laws to make teaching/learning on both public and private TV stations obligatory from 7 a.m. to 12 noon daily, before the airing of any other programme.
The aim would be to help children with no access to the internet learn. If this is not done nationwide most parents, particularly those who are fond of watching movies and other non academic programmes, will not encourage their children to actively participate in distance learning on such channels.
Bill
The passing of the Pre-Tertiary Online/Distance Education Bill would ensure that every class/level will be assigned to a particular TV station for particular subjects or courses in sync with the curricula. In other words, making teaching and learning compulsory on all television and radio stations will help in the continuance of the academic calendar with no disruptions.
It is clear that even some teachers/lecturers and university students are not comfortable with some Learning Management Systems and videoconferencing or teleconferencing platforms like Zoom and Teams, but looking at the current situation worldwide, learners, teachers and lecturers have no option but to adapt.
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The Ministry of Education (MoE) and the GES should work to fully migrate teaching and learning activities from basic to tertiary levels to online platforms for all subjects and courses.
It would be expedient for the MoE and the GES to create a fund to empower every home technologically.
It is no longer furnishing physical or face-to-face schools with computers, but it is about empowering every home with computers, internet accessibility and improving internet connectivity nationwide.
It is equally necessary for philanthropic individuals and organisations to start contributing to that fund.
Technological committee
Apart from the numerous existing educational committees, it will not be out of place to set up a technological committee, consisting of teachers from the basic to the tertiary levels to spearhead the effective and efficient teaching and learning online.
This is the time we have to prove that we have ICT experts in the country who can help make judicious use of technology in our educational institutions.
In fact, online teaching and learning has its full share of challenges, including poor internet connectivity, frequent power outage and inaccessibility of internet in some places.
The importance of passing a bill to make teaching and learning on all TV and FM stations nationwide obligatory cannot be overemphasised.
Promoting online teaching and learning can only become effective when all homes have been empowered technologically with accessibility of the internet. Let us intensify distance/online teaching and learning nationwide without rushing to reopen schools.
The writer is a lecturer at the Ghana Technology University College
E-mail: [email protected]