Introduction
The COVID 19 a global pandemic has made remarkable influences towards the education system
worldwide. This has created a new understanding and opportunities for learning. It
has also significantly turned down the parental perceptions towards the aims of
education for their children as parents are afraid of the quality of learning in
this period.
We can classify
parents into three groups with regard to the distinct perceptions concerning the education of their children;
a. The first groups of parents are confined to
think about homeschooling and scared of sending their child back to school
even after school re-opens,
b. Secondly, there might be parents who are waiting
for formal schools to re-open and,
c. The third groups of parents who are
underprivileged and conditioned socially and economically by the systems. They seem to not being able to
realize education. Rather they are fighting against the live battle of hunger
and survival since the hunger is their greatest enemy, not the virus.
However,
such an emerging phenomenon is showcasing no clear options as to how to go back to
the mainstream as usual. It’s a matter of hope and struggle and we are going
through it every minute. We are waiting for the education department updates every minute.
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| Image source: PNGWave |
This
short write up would try to focus on the parental perceptions about their
child’s schooling.
Parental perspectives
As consequences
of COVID19 outbreak across the world and its ill impacts towards the lives of
people, hundreds and thousands of parents do not have a mood to send their
children back to school. Parents are conscious of their child’s safety.
Below is the statistical results of a survey done among 12,000 parents by ParentCircle, an online platform.
Percentage
|
Parent perception
|
92%
|
Parents nationally have negative perceptions
towards sending back to school even after school re-opens.
|
56%
|
In Bengaluru, 56% want to monitor for a month after schools
reopen before sending their kids back to class.
|
21%
|
Another 21% will avoid a return to school for at least six
months.
|
12%
|
Bengaluru showed a 12% increase in interest in home
schooling.
|
15%
|
The research also shows clearly there is a 15% rise in
interest in homeschooling nationally.
|
Source:
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Considering this fact, how much of these parents who have opted for homeschooling are ready
with parenting, basic teaching skills and money. In addition, how such a long
duration of homeschooling culture would impact a child’s behaviour and social
development. And later once the children go back to formal schooling how will they
adjust to the environment.
Reflections
If we look at the
global situation report of WHO of COVID19 it seems the situation is not so good
yet. The virus is in search of encroaching human habitats. Globally, 4.9 million people have been
confirmed COVID19 affected and out of which 323K people have died (As of 19th May 2020- https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/).
This fact certainly has impacts on scaring a large number of parents as it is
termed as a very serious threat to human lives. So, we would say, today’s
education must be situational based treating both the situations very
important. Parents who have opted for homeschooling might go forming a parents circle and focus on certain reputed homeschooling
curriculums.
However, forming parents circle so and so are actionable only for
those literate parents but, for most underprivileged parents homeschooling
would be always challenging unless they are assisted with some groups of volunteer
workers in the form of a community learning centre or peer learning centre
maintaining government rules such as social distancing, using masks
etc.
Let’s pray and
hope for the better and peaceful world.
You can share your thoughts in the comment section.
The article is published as part of a series of articles on
homeschooling. By visiting our homeschooling page, you can read all the
connected articles.
The above article is a reflection from the below article. Please Click
the link to explore the above reflection in detail from an external site.
Reflection is contributed by:
Satyasing Mushahary in consultation with Maaz Mohammed AQ
Both are alumni of Azim Premji University (2014-16)