KARACHI:
According to a research conducted by the University of Oxford, school closures in the last year have led to serious learning losses, with primary school students making less progress while studying at home. The research was also conducted in the Netherlands, where schools closed for eight weeks and the students had an amazing virtual learning experience. From excellent broadband access to unflinching parental support, conditions in the Dutch system outscored most of the countries in the world. Yet, the study estimates that the learning loss there was approximately 20%.
In Pakistan, learning loss has definitely been much severer. Restrictive measures and frequent lockdowns that came about as a result of the pandemic where also much more drastic and schools were forced to close down for far too long. The government did not take the necessary steps and failed to initiate a proper online system whereby students could transition online with ease. It was witnessed that many students did not even have adequate internet access or proper technological devices to cope with the sudden shift. Apart from students, teachers also had immense difficulty in trying to understand how the online system worked. The government must now take momentous steps to bridge the learning gap that has taken place.
Ali Azlan
Lahore
Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2021.
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