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Tuesday, September 07, 2021

Open the schools, repetition

I should like to keep on record that for the first time since March 22, 2020, a news item saying that there have been disastrous losses in learning skills among schoolchildren has made it to the top of the front page of a major national newspaper: see this link. In case it vanishes from the website after a while, I am going to post a photo of the item below, too.

The survey speaks of the damage done to underprivileged children, but I can vouch from my own daily teaching experience how much harm has been done to the most privileged section too, dawdling at home, playing video games while online 'teaching' is going on or attending 'classes' from restaurants or shopping malls, taking tests only in MCQ format with textbooks open in from of them or parents dictating from the side (and being allowed an hour to answer what should take only fifteen minutes), even below-average pupils being routinely given 80%-plus marks, etc etc... I should like everyone to read the very last line of the report: 'online lessons cannot pass off as meaningful education for any child'. I concur entirely, and I speak from some knowledge and experience.

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