Nimra*, a fifth-grade student, hasn't been to school for six months now. While she's excited to go back and meet all her friends, she’s aware that things are going to be very different.
Nimra will be in the morning shift so she will only be able to see half of her classmates every day. Moreover, she will be sitting at a distance from her friends, will have to wear a face mask and sanitise her hands regularly.
Schools in Pakistan have been preparing to reopen since August 1. While measures have been taken to address a range of teaching, resource, and health and safety challenges, there is still fear that re-opening may trigger a rise in infections as children will interact with one another, their teachers and then return to their communities.
The government recognises the need to open schools to ensure the continuity of education and has issued comprehensive guidelines which prioritise student and staff safety. The decision comes after extensive consultations with educationists and medical experts and Dr Shehzad Jeeva, an adviser to the government, and director of the Aga Khan University Examination Board (AKU-EB), emphasises that Pakistan is only reopening schools after carefully observing trends in the spread of COVID-19.
Educational institutions need to reopen as spending six months out of school has already contributed to severe learning loss and increased the dropout rate of all students. If schools remain closed for another few months this would mean that we may miss out the entire 2020-2021 academic year. This will create multiple problems as all students will remain in the same grade while schools will not be able to enroll new students.
Schools can reopen safely provided they can control population density, the number of individuals present at any given point, and follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) to mitigate the chance of COVID-19 spreading.
To ensure schools stay open, the government will need to collaborate closely with schools and parents. It needs to launch an assertive and coordinated media campaign to build awareness about following SOPs and to motivate parents to send their children to school.
Student enrollment is an especially important issue for public schools, according to Dr Jeeva. The pandemic has undone efforts to increase student enrollment and the media campaign needs to be geared towards public schools that may face higher drop-out rates as compared to private schools.
The continuity of classroom-based education during the pandemic depends on monitoring and controlling ground realities. Provincial governments need to set up a robust monitoring mechanism and work closely with schools to ensure that infrastructure or other concerns are not impeding adherence to SOPs. For example, schools may need additional support in arranging the equipment to conduct daily temperature checks.
Additionally, the pandemic classroom is one that has to cope with the massive learning loss over the past six months. Online teaching has not happened uniformly across Pakistan and public school students have largely been unable to access online education.
In all schools, the quality of the online learning experience needs to be further investigated. Students across Pakistan will be returning to their classrooms with learning gaps and the government will need to provide guidance on what to exclude from the syllabus and what to keep. This concern is especially pronounced for students who are studying for their Intermediate or Matric examinations.
One proposed solution is to reduce the length of the syllabus so long as this doesn’t compromise academic rigour. However, Dr Jeeva points out, this will leave students with conceptual gaps that will have a detrimental impact on their further studies. Another alternative may be to focus on literacy, numeracy, language and scientific literacy instead of teaching all subjects.
This conversation about curriculum cannot exclude teachers as they will be the ones in the trenches. One possible solution for the boards of intermediate and secondary education boards may be to modify the format of the examination paper. For mathematics and science subjects, an option is to increase the number of multiple choice questions (MCQs). MCQs have an added benefit as they can be checked electronically and this reduces the possibility of markers interacting, mitigating the chance of contracting COVID-19.
Moreover, when administering high-stake examinations it is important that population density be controlled in examination centres and that interaction between different stakeholders be minimised as much as possible.
Public schools should also place a greater emphasis on continuous assessment. Regular records of student performance will help make decisions on promoting students in case there is a second wave and schools have to be closed down again.
While the government is taking an important first step towards resuming education, school administrators and teachers must take the necessary precautions and if needed, disciplinary measures, to prevent the spread of the virus and to keep children like Nimra safe.
* Names have been changed to protect the child’s identity and privacy.