In their article for Economic Policy Institute, Garcia and Weiss (2020) offer relevant solutions of developing and adapting the education policies in light of the current situation. As part of future action aimed at minimizing learning losses, authors of the article point out the importance of three Rs: relief, recovery, and rebuilding. First, it is important to equip schools with all of the resources necessary to offer effective remote learning. This is important because schools do not have the capacity to address the shortage of resources on their own and would require government support.
Schools also need addition investment to address the issue of gaps in learning of students, which is increasing during remote learning. The importance of filling in those gaps implies diagnostics of children and their learning needs once in-class instruction resumes. It also necessitates strategies of retaining high-quality teaching staff, increased attention to personalized learning options, socio-emotional support for teachers and children, as well as additional programs (such as summer schools) so that students have an opportunity to catch up in their learning.
Finally, the pandemic does not only pose significant challenges in education, it also offers an opportunity to critically assess the current education system and consider possibilities to improve the system in the future. It is necessary to pay attention to whole-child approach in education, which would incorporate cognitive and socio-emotional needs and skills of children while focusing on a comprehensive assessment of children skills in a way that goes beyond standardized testing. Education policy needs to consider the issue of inequity in education and also needs to be in coordination with economic policies, as effective education is not sufficient for nation-wide development.
Policy brief from the United Nations (2020) on education during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic offers a fairly pessimistic assessment of school closures and their impact on education and future prospects of children. The expectation is that a protracted period of closures (especially with no concrete steps of re-opening schools in the near future) will have an effect on all levels of education, from pre-school to professional-vocational and higher education. There is also a serious issue of inequity in education, within and across states. As such, approximately 40% of poorest states are unable to support education during the pandemic. Socio-economic gap can increase to up to 30% because of the pandemic. The negative effect is not limited to education, since the forecast for the human development index (HDI) indicates a decrease for the first time in its history.
Among the recommendations to ensure efficiency and equity in education, the United nations offer the following:
- Come with a plan to contain the spread of the virus as soon as possible in order to re-open schools in a safe manner nation-wide;
- Ensure protection of the education funding by the government, especially since the government spending has taken a significant hint globally;
- Strengthen and build a resilient education system capable of withstanding shocks in the future without significant equity issues;
- Rethink the education system, including support for the teaching profession, inclusion of access to connectivity as an important feature of education, as well as increasing flexibility across all levels of education.
A more specialized work of Fernandez and Shaw (2020) analyzes leadership in education during the pandemic. Their work focuses on three practices that offer the most effective leadership in the time of the crisis.
- Increased attention on emotional intelligence and emotional stability is quite important in the crisis period. Stress caused by sudden changes in education can affect all of the stakeholders, which increases the importance of stable leadership, which is able to establish communication with all of the stakeholders in education and offer support to overcome the challenges;
- Distribution of responsibility within the leadership team instead of a stringent hierarchy offers an effective way of tackling problems that occur in the crisis conditions;
- Openness and transparency of leadership in their relationship with all stakeholders is also quite important. Remote learning offers various communication channels with teachers, students and parents, collect feedback that would aid in decision-making.
Sources:
- Fernandez, A. A., & Shaw, G. P. (2020). Academic Leadership in a Time of Crisis: The Coronavirus and COVID‐19. Journal of Leadership Studies, 14(1), 39-45.
- García, E., & Weiss, E. (2020). COVID-19 and Student Performance, Equity, and US Education Policy: Lessons from Pre-Pandemic Research to Inform Relief, Recovery, and Rebuilding. Economic Policy Institute. September, 10, 2020.
United Nations. (2020). Policy Brief: Education during COVID-19 and beyond. Available at: https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2020/08/sg_policy_brief_covid-19_and_education_august_2020.pdf
