Aguascalientes, Ags.- On March 14, 2020, the then head of the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) reported that classes would be suspended from 20 of that same month and until April 20 as a preventive measure to avoid more infections by COVID- 19 that by then had already been recognized by the World Health Organization as a pandemic (it did so on March 11).
What at first would be a suspension of classes for a month has become one that will become in a few days a 14-month suspension in the vast majority of educational institutions in the Mexican Republic. In the case of the state of Aguascalientes, for a few months there have been very controlled classes in terms of capacity in some private schools, not so in public schools.
Although there are no official figures in the state of Aguascalientes on school dropouts due to the pandemic, it is to be assumed that the phenomenon has occurred, as the INEGI reflected it at the national level in its Survey to Measure the Impact of COVID- 19 in Education (ECOVID-ED) 2020, which does not break down the data by entity.
There are also no studies on the impact on learning that classes have not been face-to-face for a long time. This, hopefully, will become known over time.
But if little has been said about something, it is about how teachers have lived that there was no other option but to give classes online. From the network He spoke with an elementary school teacher and another at the university level so they could share their experiences. Broadly speaking, it synthesizes the thinking of several teachers who have expressed their opinion.
What is experienced before a primary school group
Claudia is a first grade primary school teacher, and she met her students in person just a few weeks ago when they returned to school. In the previous school year she was a regular teacher of another grade, and that was when the face-to-face classes were interrupted.
Among what those who have 11 years of teaching experience tell us is the following:
Children learn less in virtual classes than in face-to-face classes. It is not possible to generalize in what percentage the objectives are not achieved, since the small ones are different from each other. It could, however, be affirmed that those who lose the least is 30%.
Teachers, parents, and students influence the degree of learning, and each of them has a lot of weight in their degree of commitment, level of participation, dedication and compliance.
The fact that they are at home makes it difficult for children in the first grades to develop routines and habits, those that are acquired at school, and if to that are added the things that distract them at home as well as the fact that it is impossible approach each one to motivate them, the situation becomes difficult.
Another of the situations that arise in this virtual modality, this graduate in Pedagogy with a specialty in Psychological Intervention tells us, is that the physical closeness of the father or mother of the family has given rise to the interference of several of them in the process teaching. The problem is exacerbated by those who ask that children not be required of what is normally required of them at school.
And something is presented that was not given before: since communication with parents is virtual, there are those who assume they have the right to communicate at any time and on any day with teachers, without respecting class schedules or working days.
Be a teacher at the university level
The following is the testimony of a teacher with extensive experience, Academic Director of a private university. She tells us:
The pandemic and its consequent quarantine left us with no other option at the university than to teach classes online. It was a new environment unknown to everyone, with many flaws, many methodological shortcomings and with some students who had neither the training, nor the character, nor the concentration for this type of teaching; although being digital natives they took very little to understand how it works and some took much less time to develop mechanisms to be without being, sometimes real and other times provoked.
Students who had an unstable internet or who had to share a computer with their siblings. Students who went shopping with their mother and pretended to attend the class as if it were a radio program. Students who almost always had the camera broken and could not be on the screen. Students who appeared in their pajamas in their bed, hugging the pillow. Students who looked for work and wanted to have classes in full work activity. Students with their cell phones or browsing internet pages without paying attention to the class, but with their eyes fixed on the screen. Parents scolding their children or asking for help, forgetting they were in class.
The first week was chaotic, it took us between 10 or 15 minutes to connect, we lived in a permanent connection and disconnection. Later that time was reduced, but a series of negotiations had to be undertaken so that they would appear before the camera, neat, well dressed and without being in another activity. Another of the struggles was to keep their cameras on. The latter seemed impossible, since without warning they disappeared. I should point out that the stress a teacher lives with on a daily basis was multiplied by 10 with online classes.
The original planning of classes was of little use and it was necessary to adapt to the new technological context and to all the incidents with which we faced daily, because it is definitely not the same to give face-to-face classes than online, and new materials had to be developed and designed. learning activities that are engaging enough to hold students’ attention. We realized that in the study program there were plenty of topics and we had to select the really important ones so that there would be real learning.
Technology helped us enormously during this stage of the pandemic and it was wonderful to have it; although I am convinced that education in a digital environment is not the most appropriate for children and young people in training. I think it is more appropriate for adult training.
Now, close to the face-to-face classes, I only have concern that certain habits lost during this stage can be recovered, as well as all the learning that was not acquired or that did not have the proper quality. Hopefully it has not been a lost year in the educational context. Happy digital teacher’s day.
There are 23,185 teachers in Aguascalientes
Of the 23,185 teachers in the educational institutions of the state of Aguascalientes at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, 72% worked in public support and the remaining 28% in private ones. These are the most up-to-date data that the Aguascalients Education Institute (IEA) has for public consultation on its website. Only teachers are included in this table, but not managers or administrators, which some institutions also celebrate on the occasion of Teacher’s Day.
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