With the high number of daily infections in the country, it is reasonable for many quarters to worry about the reopening of schools scheduled on 1 September 2021. This is especially so when children under 18 are not vaccinated under the current immunisation programme. Calls for postponement of the reopening of schools are certainly not without merit.
Nonetheless, it is equally imperative that if schools were to remain closed and lessons to continue to be taught online, then efforts must be put in place to cater for the “lost generation.” The lost generation is the disoriented social generational cohort – an inadvertent but direct result of the pandemic. The lost generation in the context of education include the preschool cohort, schooling (primary and secondary) cohort as well as the tertiary education cohort. They are the most affected by the pandemic.
One concern is that the pandemic has created a cohort of young children who do not have the ability to read, write and count. As a result of online learning, they have also been deprived of social skills development as they have minimal interactions with other adults and children outside their homes. Not only do the young children have difficulties reading, writing and counting, the inculcation of adab and values are also made difficult.
The same problems are faced by school-going children all the way up to the secondary school. Without proper social interaction with peers and adults, the inculcation of adab and values will merely be theoretical instead of practical. Do not be surprised to find the future filled with young adults who are socially awkward and may even lack socially-acceptable manners.
In order to ensure that lessons continue in spite of having to be conducted online, teaching and learning innovations have been introduced to facilitate the necessary change in the learning environment. Teachers have been encouraged to use the “cybergogical” approach that is to encourage learners to engage in an online environment. Lessons are also designed to be based on co-learning and co-creating environment based on the “peeragogical” method. Using the “heutagogical” strategy, teachers would encourage students to be more self-directed in learning. “Gamification” is another way used to attract students’ attention to online learning by engaging and enhancing learning activities with interactive games.
All these new approaches using terminologies and concepts such as “cybergogy,” “peeragogy,” “heutagogy” and “gamification” are well and good. Nonetheless, there must be a reality check vis-à-vis implementation and delivery. Are teachers really equipped with the necessary know-how to implement these innovative approaches?
Equally and critically important, we must also not miss the stark reality that many students from the B40 group as well as those living in rural and remote areas may not be as fortunate as their peers in the cities or from well-to-do families. Many still do not have access to the necessary infrastructure and infostructure to access online learning. This particular vulnerable cohort would certainly make up the bulk of the lost generation that the country needs to prepare for.
When it comes to science-based subjects, it is without a doubt that teaching and learning would need to involve a hands-on approach. The sciences are not just theoretical subjects. For students to really understand the concepts and theories behind science, they need to do experiments in laboratories.
Many centuries ago, the Father of Chemistry, Jabir ibn Hayyan emphasised the importance of the practical side of learning chemistry. He wrote, “The most essential in chemistry is that you should perform practical work and conduct experiments, for he who performs not practical work nor conduct experiments will never attain the least degree of mastery.”
In the present situation, when students are unable to attend schools and universities, we will have a cohort who will lack the competency in science especially when it comes to handling laboratory equipment and conducting experiments. Imagine a science student who does not have the confidence to use a Bunsen burner or the skill to do a simple chromatography.
Unfortunately, this is one very real challenge facing this particular cohort of science students who are not able to hone their practical skills as they are not able to get their hands dirty in the laboratory due to the pandemic. Learning science using online simulations is only a temporary measure in this challenging times, but it should not be the solution to the current situation as it impedes the real learning experience required for a science student to learn science subjects. One shudder to think about the future when we have science and engineering graduates who do not have the competency necessary to qualify them as scientists and engineers.
Therefore, in facing the current pandemic, we must not lose sight of the emerging lost generation. When putting together a recovery plan for the country, let us not forget the need to mitigate the impacts of online learning on the current cohort of students at all levels of education. They are the future of the country, and if we fail to prepare a recovery plan for this disoriented cohort, then we fail to prepare them for the future.