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FOUR THINGS COVID-19 TAUGHT US IN 2020



By Edinam Ahiably-kumordjie

What a year 2020 has been, who could have predicted this? The COVID-19 pandemic has indeed taught humankind vital lessons in different aspects of our everyday life. Important sectors such as health, banking, aviation, transportation, sports, entertainment and of course education have all alter their operations due to this global pandemic.
As  a professional teacher, I will talk about four major issues this pandemic has uncover about teaching and learning.

THE WORK OF TEACHERS HAS LONG BEEN UNDERRATED
The rate at which the Corona virus was spreading meant that schools be closed down. This was highly unexpected. Never in my 32 years of life have I seen schools being closed down for this long. Teachers like myself had no choice but to peacefully go home and rest as it were.
On the other had, parents were reeling under the pressure of having to take care of their wards during this period of school closure. I received calls from parents complaining about their frustrations and stress in caring for their wards all day. 
I can understand the concerns of parents but what they forgot is that some  teachers were handling close to 50 children in a class before the school closure. In some schools in the big cities the number of pupils in a class could be very high especially at the kindergarten level. So if a mother of two begins to complain about pressure and frustration in caring for her own kids, then the teacher caring for 50 or more needs to be recognized. Teachers are trained to teach and care for pupils but when the pupil population becomes so high in a class, we are overwhelmed and unable to carry out our functions effectively as we can. Going forward, post COVID-19, it is my hope that teachers will be given more respect and recognition.

WE'VE FAILED IN INTEGRATING I.C.T. INTO EDUCATION
What has become very common in teaching and learning today is virtual learning. Only few basic schools in Ghana have been able to go virtual and the reason is very clear. We have failed as a people to make any serious investment in ICT education. Our high school students are not even permitted to use mobile phones in school. A lot of schools in rural areas do not even have  electricity and pupils there can only dream of ever working with computers. Even some of the so called first class universities struggled go virtual. Even if these schools had the capacity go completely virtual, some students would not have benefited because they live in locations where internet connectivity is either poor or non- existent.
COVID-19 has really exposed our education system.

SOME PARENTS DO NOT SHOW MUCH INTEREST IN EDUCATING THEIR WARDS 
Parents are struggling to engage their children at home today. Some are doing their best, I must admit. Some will call to seek professional advice on how to assist their children in specific areas. 
There are also a few who are basically lost as to what to do. They just don't know anything about thier Ward's education and this baffles me. It also tells me these parents have never shown any interest in the academic progress or otherwise of their wards. Some of these parents even struggle to mention the name of the school their children attend or the name of their children's class teacher. For some, they learnt for the first time the problems their children faced in school only during this COVID-19 school closure.
The role of parents in education cannot be underestimated. Sometimes, the anxieties of life puts too much pressure on parents to the extent that they only have little time for their own kids. All said and done, can we excuse parents for not being actively involved in their children's education for any reason? I do not think so!

WE NEED UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
Private school teachers are one of the hardest hit group when it comes to the impact of COVID-19 on education. Whiles government school teachers were at home and receiving thier salaries in full, private school teachers were being laid off. Most of these teachers remain unemployed till now. Isn't it time we insure ourselves against unemployment? I think if these teachers were insured, the impact wouldn't have been that huge. It's a very difficult situation to be in because most of these teachers earn very low salaries. How do you insure yourself if your disposable income is in red? Something urgently need to be done to support these teachers.
I have never seen any advertisement on unemployment insurance in Ghana. Am not too sure about the non-availability of unemployment insurance in Ghana. Though I have seen insurance agents approach me to sell different insurance policies, unemployment insurance has never been mentioned.
Well, I can't blame insurance companies for that maybe the high rate of unemployment in the country has made unemployment an uninsurable risk so to speak.

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