We still have a month to go back to our usual days, but will everything be the same as before? (Spoiler alert: no)
Today I’m going to talk about the repercussions of the “confinement” due to COVID-19 disease, that we’ll normally get next month, specifically in the topic of studies, because this is the area we are the most concerned.
(I wanted to talk about political affairs at this moment in the world, but I didn’t want to be captured by the Chinese government)
We know very well that the 15 million students (schools, colleges, high schools, higher education) will not progress at the same pace, it depends on the nature of work of oneself: there are some who cannot work at home and are used to going to libraries (for the concentration, atmosphere, etc.), others cannot work without the presence of a teacher, while others are “favored” by the habit of working in home. On the other hand, this disease is real ! There are many students (myself included) who are affected by the disease and can no longer work effectively, this can go from simple fatigue to a real weight to carry (in my case I’m always sleepy and basically I can’t work on scientific subjects), not to mention the most dramatic cases (many people who lose their relatives end up upset). However, I think that the online classes system puts in disadvantage mostly the families at the bottom of the pyramid (having economic issues) and the large families: Let’s take an hypothetical case where there is only one computer in a house when there are 5 children who are supposed to be logged in regularly on the school’s website, and even write homework written on the machine,how can they manage to work properly in these conditions? The lack of lessons in a real physical class will further deepen the students studying differences. There will be many late, and many in advance, but unfortunately the day of the return we’ll all be “in the same bathtub”, and those who have been too late will have less than 2 months to catch up with the others, without forgetting the big amount of tests we will have at the back to school.
That’s why I, by the way, am of opinion that the Bac should be done in continuous control, and not in a fixed test, because there would be too many inequalities. Let’s take a simple example: The subject of the “Bac de philo” is entitled “Happiness”. Class A broached this topic at the beginning of the year so they haven’t got too many problems during the control, but class B approached it during time of “confinement”, so generally the chapter was more complicated to understand, and more precisely, let’s take the case of a student X, to whom his computer broke down and cannot read his texts of philosophy on a small screen of telephone. The result is very obvious to understand. Even if we say that the correctors will be more “lenient” when they will note the test, they will be lenient with every student so there will be not really any rebalancing. This is the problem in this year’s bac exams, and there is nothing we can do to make it more balanced unless, I think, we do it in continuous assessment.
Well, I hope the government will find a better solution to this issue.
Grazie e arrivederci.
Ms. Hubbard
Sacha, glad you wrote about this. One of my fears is that we will not return to school this year. I know in the UK and in California this is the case. In the UK for example , they will base student grades on their yearly average. It is also unfair to assume students have access to the same resources at home and can work efficiently. It’s an extremely delicate situation and nobody has really correctly addressed the problem. It’s frustrating for teachers since I would feel more comfortable with a unilateral decision and instructions! ALAS!