Online teaching has achieved the right effect, compensation for necessary hours

Pandemia has caused much to be overlooked in what constitutes a quality teaching, starting in cutting hours, then switching to groups, switching from one scenario to another scenario, which, according to the school community, directly influenced teaching and teaching qualities, reports Online Economics.

The Kosovo government, to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, has made the decision that the first third anniversary of the 2020/2021 school year will be completed on December 18th and the second half anniversary will begin on January 18th.

According to Institute Director “EdGard”, Youth Qehaja, the country's institutions have not proven that schools are a source of infection.

Qehaja in an interview for Online Economics says there has been a lack of open communication to relevant institutions with the school community to inform them of what data is based on making decisions. According to him, it is still unclear whether the increase in cases is related to the return of students to schools.

“We have consistently called for open communication of the Public Health and Health Ministry Institute so that it can be communicated to citizens and the school community where the basis of these stricter measures, whether with presence in class, but also the premature interruption of the learning process. So, the core of a more literal management of the pandemic situation, I believe it would be an opener communication of relevant institutions to the school community, and that would then give us the answer to who really is the source of infection in our country”.

We're still unclear whether the rise in cases is correlate with the return to schools, or whatever other environment, whether it's with the caffeines or closed environments without ventilation... We lack these statistics, and the lack of statistics has caused us to be very unaware of the responses to either of these” scenarios, he said.

According to the Director of the Low High School “Faik Konica”, Jehona Oruqi, safety within schools is at the highest level in terms of the virus' spread.

“Brenda school, the measures are quite rigorous and should be. Security within the school is high, students are divided into groups and the protocol is implemented overall. So I think the school is not the case of the virus distribution if we continue to respect the protocol that we have done thus far”, she said.

Online Teaching

This school year is estimated to be missing from the Kosovo education community, as online learning has not been effective and students are stuck in learning.

However, Education and Science Minister Rame Likaj considers the first 2020/2021 school half-year as a successful learning process.

“After the holidays, the lesson will continue according to scenarios which were previously introduced. We expect the situation with David-19 to calm down... We've had a good learning process; so far there have been cases when schools have gone from one scenario to another. There were not many schools”, said Minister for Online Economy.

There are also schools that have fully implemented the learning process with the length of hours it has been in advance with the preliminary calendar, 45 minutes. The process has turned out well, although we have had cases of student infections and teachers”.

According to Likaj, MAS has had very good co-operation with the IKSHPK and the Ministry of Health. Over 20,000 tests have been conducted in the pre-university education system”.

And, according to the online teaching case, it hasn't shown any efficiency. He also says this approach is difficult to implement in Kosovo, as it requires many investments.

Online teaching has proven that it's difficult to implement in our country. It requires a lot of investment, requires a lot of institutional commitment and, above all, awareness of the community of teachers, students and parents, but also professional preparation and teachers for realisation”.

So it's a pretty deep link of interventions that takes time for which results can only be seen for a longer period. And in the situation that we are and the brief and imposed response that has been presented to us in the management of the pandemic, online learning and distance has not witnessed any efficiency. This is witnessed by many research done with the school community, where teachers, parents, and students reconfirm this. More than 90% of them prefer learning with physical presence than any other form outside school banks”, Qehaja said.

The teacher at Model School “Qalil Batalli”, Valdrina Nekoviqi, said online learning has not had the effect, since this method of teaching has often been distracting for her students.

When schools closed in early March, educational institutions took steps or we can say measures to start online learning, which was very important for that time as it was a state of emergency. This caused students to have little interest in Covid or pandemics but to be taken, in contact with teachers, and to engage in order to achieve results that are target”.

So this, in a way, was positive in terms of online learning not to be left behind by students. Even though I was part of e-learning, I personally think that online teaching didn't have the right effect if we compared it to classroom learning or school, because student engagement in class makes the teacher deliver his work directly. While through platforms, whatever it is, we cannot know how much the student has received or can't handle activities as the teacher requires, or as the teacher needs to do”, Nekovic said.

There are students who engage in instruction, same as in class, same as online or in distance, who will tell me they can achieve what is intended by teachers. But there are students who can't handle this... It's a lack of concentration, for example, online”.

She says there were children who could not concentrate on online software. “They were focused on other things, because it was interesting why the teacher is looking at it through the cameras, the lesson being held there was interesting.

Nekoviqi points out that this was a challenge for the teachers but also for parents who have been forced to become teachers of their children in some way.

Model School students “Qalil Batalli”, as well as other students, have often had problems getting locked online due to technical problems.

Head of the Low High School “Faik Konica”, Jehona Oruqi, said the lesson was conducted according to two scenarios. According to her, online learning has been transmitted to some technical problems, but since it has been recorded it has been adjusted.

<x) In scenario B at the top cycle students are divided into two groups, in Group A and Group B; that means that 15 students have stayed in class, while 15 others have followed their lessons to their homes in the middle of e-gollour, but sometimes through virtual classrooms through the Zoom. Students according to groups have even changed”.

The principal reports that at the beginning of the school year, students were more enthusiastic and have followed the lesson in a regular manner; while he suggests that in recent months this enthusiasm has diminished slightly.

May summer holidays 2021 be canceled to compensate for lost classes?

Lost classes and stuck in learning, according to the educational community, must be compensated, initially making an assessment of which courses are left behind and then continued with supplementing hours.

Minister Likaj said compensation of classes will continue even during the summer vacation period, and a working group has been engaged to build the new calendar.

The co-worker group has been called to build the new calendar to compensate for the days students have lost for this school year. I've made a decision based on IKKPK recommendations”, he said.

“is the working group that sets for the calendar. Surely, if the situation calms down, then summer holidays will also be canceled or another form found to compensate for”, Likaj said.

Qehaja from Institute “EdGard”, says it is necessary for each student to be assessed by their teachers in order to get additional support in classes that have been stuck this year.

I believe the Ministry will react to a plan-program with the replacement of the same hours. For what we need is for each student to be valued individually by their teachers for additional support. So, having plans for students in order to make sure that everyone is in the same way in terms of achieving those results that call for the curricla; not a student with a jam in learning during this stage and having an institutional commitment to an all-x1> equality, he said.

On the other hand, he says the pandemic has distracted from the quality of the teaching and teaching process.

“History created for the pandemic has caused us to overlook the amount that builds a quality teaching. Especially here do we highlight the cuts of hours, then switching to groups, switching from one scenario to the next scenario that has directly influenced the quality of teaching and teaching”, Qehaja noted.

Educator Nekovi also considers online learning to be flawed in students, so it should be appreciated where there was a impasse in order to hold the supplementary class teaching rather than virtually.

We've only kept the main subjects, not other subjects that are planned for that age or program. And since September we started school, but the schedule was shorter. I think the results that were targeted during that time have not been achieved and we need work or supplementary teaching to hold at school; however, at school, not online”.

Online teaching has failed and children are left behind... We hope that there will be no more pandemic and return to normal life and somehow compensate for what students have achieved. I think it should be held supplementary teaching, somehow organized by”, she says.