Calls for official remote learning policy rise
Calls for official remote learning policy rise
After the Covid-19 pandemic and school closures four years ago, teachers are once again faced with a situation where teaching and learning are disrupted.
This comes after the Ministry of Education was instructed by President William Ruto to postpone the reopening of the schools indefinitely.
With the country being battered by torrential rains, the directive essentially put a stop to the scheduled reopening of May 6.
Stakeholders contend that not enough has been done to establish a strong alternative remote learning infrastructure to guarantee learning continuity.
According to The Standard, several public secondary schools are interacting with students on online platforms like WhatsApp.
A parent at Naivasha Girls told the Standard, “My daughter and the other classmates conduct discussions on WhatsApp and it is moderated by a teacher.”
Although the closure of schools is still in its early stages, some of the members of the Kenya Private Schools Association, according to their chairman Charles Ochome, have already offered options for remote learning that students and teachers can review.
“Some schools have been engaging learners on virtual platforms such as WhatsApp during the holiday and they continued the same when the schools reopened,” Ochome said.
Even though Ochome concedes that the government hasn’t done much to guarantee a strong substitute for remote learning, he notes that local remote learning programs have persisted in schools since the Covid shutdown.
The chairman of the Kenya Primary School Heads Association, Johnson Nzioka, pointed out that while local arrangements may be used by schools to engage students, there hasn’t been a national directive to cover students during the extended holidays.
However, he downplayed the loss of time at the moment noting that the period is recoverable without major changes on the school calendar.
Kenya Association of International Schools’ Jane Mwangi termed this as an eye-opener for educators to embrace alternative teaching methods.
“This being the second disruption, probably we need to think of an effective out-of-class solution that can be developed slowly so that we can switch to it if we have another disruption,” Mwangi said.
The CEO of the Kenya Women Teachers Association (KEWOTA), Benter Opande, observed that there hasn’t been enough preparation to support online learning.
