Replicating classroom teaching in a virtual medium is a huge transition all out of a sudden. Although Singapore’s education system already has had e-learning incorporated into its teaching methods, it’s a big change as now everything is transferred to the online platform and the learning environment has changed completely.
Right from the time when Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level was raised from Yellow to Orange on February 7th, the “Circuit Breaker” was soon put into action and the government did an excellent job in keeping people calm will taking the right measures to keep things in control. Education is certainly one of the areas that is being well-handled as well.
Home-based learning has become the new norm and it is important for all of us to roll with the punches and accept reality. But it’s obviously much easier said than done.
So, how can we better adapt to these drastic changes and move forward?
ACCEPT THE REALITY
The nation has had to make the appropriate decisions to keep everyone safe and thus there is a lot of factors out of our control. Many parents are concerned about the quality of their children’s education being compromised as everything is now offline and they immediately correlate it to their children’s future being “ruined”.
Everyone has some sort of loss one way or another and its part of reality. Yes, online learning may not have the same impact as much as traditional classroom learning does but the situation is such that we have to make the best out of what we have.
DIGITAL DIVIDE
One of the challenges of online education is that not all students can have equal access to technological devices to conveniently carry out their learning at home. In light of this situation, Ministry of Education had announced that all secondary school students would receive a personal laptop or tablet.
With students given more liberty and since learning takes place at home all day, there is room for sluggishness and there is an apparent lack of student-student interaction which is inevitable. These changes are beyond our conscious control and in order to keep this going, parents need to be a source of encouragement.
ONLINE TUITION
The education syllabus is getting tougher in Singapore and students are expected to perform with greater competency in their studies now more than ever. With the pandemic, home-based learning has put a greater pressure on students and they continue to feel helpless.
Online tuition in Singapore is becoming a huge saviour for many students and its now that everyone are discovering the benefits. Online tuition enables students to seek clarifications uninhibitedly and they can learn topics at a pace that is comfortable for them.
Online tutors will also be able to guide students well in an interactive manner which sparks interest in students and motivates them to learn their subjects in much more depth.
BOTTOM LINE
The pandemic is a reminder for all of us that we need to have the mental capacity to dodge curveballs that life throws at us. From education to business, there has been some drastic changes that had to be made; most of them inconvenient; but it is what had to be done.
Singapore has always responded to challenges with an optimistic attitude, and with today’s coronavirus, it will do so the same way once again!