Learner pens his thoughts on lockdown

According to the bright young learner, online classes were exciting at the beginning however, being in a classroom is much more stimulating. 

A 13-year-old learner penned his thoughts and feelings on the impact of novel coronavirus pandemic on his education and hopes to have his essay published in the history books one day.

The Grade 8 learner, Shreyansh Behara took inspiration from several news broadcasts and thought it would be interesting to share his thoughts on the matter.

According to the essay, Shreyansh explained, “South Africa as a nation already being in a never ending debt cycle has a brand new obstacle ahead of it in the form of a battle against the coronavirus. Several educational institutions among the developed the sector of the country have implemented a digitalised form of educational means such as online lessons and posting assignments on e-portals. We might think that the underdeveloped sector has no capability of taking this approach of learning and teaching but that is not the case. Although they have tried to approach this method via radio and television services, it is simply not enough for a country with a large youth population.”

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According to the bright young learner, online classes were exciting at the beginning however, being in a classroom is much more stimulating.

“Digitalising educational systems is a possibility but what needs to be kept in mind is that many South African communities do not have access to many digital platforms due to various economic and service delivery problems. The most obvious step the institutions should take is to take advice from the people who will be affected by their decisions, the students. Being the people affected students have the capability to identify as many flaws as possible which the institution could take into consideration. Another possible solution is to provide affordable internet and mobile services to vulnerable groups to allow a greater majority to have access to online learning platforms. One thing to say is that this pandemic has given us a useful and fruitful way of using technology compared to our daily misuses of the luxury.”

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“As we know the current generation cannot cope with the old textbook and workbook traditions and only understand concepts with visual and aural methods. The format of e-learning has created a need of self-study among students which may have an occurrence of a downgrade in marks across all learning institutions. This may again occur at great social costs as interaction between students is vital for a quality education and if they are stuck to e-learning the socialising factors are significantly less. The most common problem among South Africans is that they have inadequate services to have access to such a luxury in learning. This creates a difference in marks between privileged and underprivileged students creating less employment opportunities for the disadvantaged when it comes to further stages in life. We should have realised that the gains of e-learning come at great costs especially in times of natural disasters. Soon this disease will become history and we will think of it to be a once upon a time story. So let’s do our best to fight this war,” he added.

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