Thursday 4th February 2021 | PALATINATE
16
Politics
Education under Covid-19
Swapping libraries for bedrooms Honor Douglas The year 2020/21, an academic year like no other…except if you are talking about the year before. University from home is not what students sign up to when applying to Durham, and the length of time that this atrocity has gone on for is disgraceful. The Government simply does not seem to care about the amount of money we are wasting, both on online tuition and unused accommodation. Durham should also be doing more if they want to justify us continuing to pay £9,250 for this year’s tuition. The Open University professors are online teaching specialists, trained to teach students through the screen. Their courses cost a third of the price of Durham’s online tuition (£3,096). Durham professors seem to be trying, but it is challenging to get students to engage through a screen. In tutorials, barely anyone has their cameras or microphones on, and I do not blame them. Being in the first year, we have not met anyone who studies with us, making the thought of contributing an idea a terrifying feat. Surely there should be more on offer to justify the price of tuition staying in place – for example, more tutorials per week, or smaller tutorial groups. A transcript of each lecture and a PowerPoint presentation to engage students should be a must. Zoning out when looking at a screen for so long each day is inevitable, and there should be action in place to rectify this. Students are expected to be as motivated as usual, despite the challenges of doing University from home. When the days feel repetitive, and peers are quiet in tutorials, there is less desire to throw oneself into academics.
The fact that students’ mentalhealthhassufferedis completely understandable
The fact that students’ mental health has suffered is completely understandable, due to increased screen time, more time to think than ever before and fewer opportunities to let off steam. It would be great if the impact of completing University from home was spoken of more frequently and to a broader
How to solve the problem of schools
audience, in order to help students feel less alone. I am supposed to be living in college this year, so, fortunately, there has been a scheme in place to refund me for the cost of my unused catered room. I am lucky to have my own space and working WIFI, enabling me to complete my degree at home, but for some students returning to college is a must. For the majority of students, the first year of University is their first time living away from home, and at such a young age, this can be a daunting experience.
Anna Noble
University is supposed to be a time to grow
University is supposed to be a time to grow, try new things, and make mistakes. However, with punishments and threats frequently issued by colleges, making mistakes now puts students’ university careers at risk. This can be really damaging to students’ wellbeing. The lengthy emails from the University outlining the rules in such great detail is quite intimidating. Palatinate’s short articles are much more simply understood and hopefully lead to fewer people getting in trouble.
Students need to be back in University as soon as possible For
students
in
private
(Lilith Foster-Collins)
accommodation, their future at the University is not put at risk quite so often. Still, the number of students having to pay for unused rooms is ridiculous: they should be refunded in the same way that those living in college are. University from home has been challenging. Usually, the motto ’work hard play hard’ aligns with a university student’s lifestyle, but this year that has not been the case. For the sake of academic work and wellbeing, students need to be back in University as soon as possible, to live life and move on. (David Mulder, Creative Commons)
Exams are not the only thing that has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic education as a whole is at risk. In England (and many of the devolved nations), students will have completed, at most, a term of in- person education. Even when pupils were back at school in the Autumn term, a considerable portion of students will have had to take time off to self-isolate. The reality is that students may lose a year of education. Studies have shown that many pupils are not keeping up with online education. For some students this is due to a lack of resources, support or a space to work. Ofcom estimate that between 1.11.8 million children in the UK (9 per cent) do not have access to a laptop, desktop or tablet. Whilst there have been some efforts by the Government and companies to provide devices and internet options to help facilitate online education, there is a general consensus that these have not significantly addressed the issues. The Government has fallen short of providing concrete policies to mitigate this. The Government has two major issues: how to safely re-open schools and how to compensate for lost education. Schools need to open as soon as possible. Children are falling further behind every day; some are at risk of not receiving the basic standard of education. One solution proposed by teaching unions and backed by Labour is for the Government to prioritise the vaccinations of teachers to greatly prevent transmissions. The Government have rejected this strategy, arguing that re-allocating vaccines will extend lockdown.
The reality is that students mayloseayearofeducation
Nevertheless, it should be acknowledged that schools must be a priority: our country cannot afford to leave a generation behind in terms of education. Delaying a return to schools is more likely to disadvantage lower income families and increase the economic divide in
pupil attainment. Whilst there is no perfect solution, vaccinating teachers in order to achieve a quicker return to the classroom should not be dismissed. Re-opening schools is only half the problem. The Government and education chiefs must find a way to mitigate the disruption of the pandemic to education. One suggestion has been allowing students that have fallen significantly behind to repeat the year. Statistically speaking, the pupils who have fallen furthest behind are those coming from ‘disadvantaged’ or low-income backgrounds; these are the students most likely to need to repeat the year. This could be damaging to students as many are likely to feel they are being punished for circumstances out of their control. This could also, in the short term, impact the number of ‘disadvantaged’ students applying for higher education. Holding pupils back is also likely to increase class sizes. Such a strategy would also require a significant amount of funding. Summer school is a potentially better solution. Children would not be held back from their peers, the impact on higher education may be lessened and class sizes would be less affected. It would also provide childcare for working parents who have struggled over the pandemic. However, the psychological impact of forcing selected children to attend school during the summer holidays could be significant. There is also the question of whether you can fit a year’s worth of work into six weeks. This solution would also be costly. A final suggestion is that the Government provides tutoring for pupils who have fallen behind due to the pandemic. Whilst this is potentially the best solution, it is also practically unachievable. Millions of children will have fallen behind due to the pandemic. Are there enough tutors to accommodate this? This would be extremely costly. Therefore, perhaps the best solution is a combination of all three. Funding for schools to run summer schools to catch pupils up, additional funds for the students who still need it to receive tutoring, and finally as a last resort the opportunity for some pupils to repeat the year. The Government must choose to invest in a generation, or they are going to risk losing one.
