As schools prepare to re-open after a six-month closure, the teachers and the administrators are forced to battle with novel challenges. While welcoming the students back to campus is something that we all look forward to, ensuring the compliance of all mandatory SOPs and precautionary measures is something schools should be very conscious of. But more than that, what is challenging yet exciting for teachers is focusing on incorporating new methods of pedagogy, particularly innovative techniques, while deciding what kind of teaching is better on the internet and which mode is suitable in a physical classroom setting. At such a crucial point in time, teachers and educators are the true leaders as they have combined the leadership of the school to order to overcome the multiple obstacles in their way.
There is no doubt that the few years ahead will be quite challenging. But instead of being strict, adhesive and didactic, teachers need to become facilitators and encourage children to learn and adapt to innovative new ways of learning since the traditional ones of rote-learning and cramming down notes have become history. Moving ahead and not in reverse is the way to go, as far as education and blended learning in the aftermath of Covid-19 virus is concerned. It is apparent that the future is no longer something we can define.
Online education mediums such as Zoom cloud conferencing and breakout rooms for virtually engaging discussions have will eventually become the norm as the frequency of such unprecedented situations increase in the future. Therefore, we need to ready our students for a hybrid model of learning which can only come about if new methods of learning are introduced. It is high time that we started to re-define what it means to learn, and teach our students that the Covid-19 outbreak is allowing us to learn and re-learn.
Hadia Mukhtar
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, September 19th, 2020.
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