IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC ON EDUCATION
Damaris Kamoyo
8.09.2021
COVID-19, commonly known as coronavirus, is a pandemic that is causing more than just health problems. Its effects are felt at all levels of society, with significant implications especially for educational. The Coronavirus outbreak has a significant impact on educational activities all around the world. The coronavirus epidemic wreaked havoc on educational institutions throughout the world, forcing many schools to close. Academic pursuits, as well as professional ambitions, were severely disrupted. Many nations across the world shuttered schools in an attempt to control the coronavirus epidemic as part of the worldwide campaign to battle COVID-19. Over 100 nations enacted national shutdown, affecting more than half of the world’s student population, according to UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) monitoring (UNESCO, 2020a).
Even in the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister David Cameron one of those who initially opposed the plan subsequently conceded that “closing schools might put even more downward pressure on the Coronavirus outbreak’s rising slope” (ABC News, 2020). Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, China, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, Honduras, India, Japan, Iran, USA, France, Spain, Italy, North and South Korea, Lebanon, Vietnam, Thailand, Germany, and South Korea are just a few of the nations that have shuttered schools owing to COVID-19. School closures have significant social, educational, and economic consequences, and the disruptions they produce affect individuals from all walks of life, but they have an especially negative impact on poor people and their families.
If a more dependable treatment for coronavirus is not developed in a timely manner, and the disease spreads, the disruption caused by COVID-19 in the educational sector may extend longer than predicted. According to VOA News (2020), UNESCO Director-General Andrey Azoulayals cautioned that “the worldwide magnitude and pace of the educational disruption caused by coronavirus is unprecedented and, if sustained, may jeopardize the right to education.” Unplanned school closures may, without a doubt, pose significant issues for children, instructors, parents, and society as a whole. It may have a detrimental impact on kids’ academic interest and performance. If pupils are not constructively engaged, they may become bored.
As a result, adolescents may become involved in criminal activity, lose interest in studying, and perform poorly in school. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States has also raised worry about the consequences of school closures. “Longer closures may result in more children congregating outside of schools,” according to the CDC. School closure is very contentious, and it may have a big impact on a large number of children in receiving schools. It can have an impact on the quality of teaching and learning, as well as academic performance, especially for children with special needs or learning disabilities, who typically require more physical attention and supervision from the instructors Though technology can help alleviate some of the effects of school closures, it cannot replace the crucial benefit of face-to-face interaction. www.iiste.org Journal of Education and Practice ISSN 2222–1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222–288X (Electronic) (Online) 2020, Vol.11, №13 112 interplay between students and instructors Furthermore, many students lack access to enabling technologies, making it difficult to exploit the potentials of learning technology during school closures. Against all odds, a mathematical model and empirical study of reactive school closures in previous pandemics show that it decreases the overall number of cases in the community by 25%. It delays the pandemic’s peak by a week or two, whereas preemptive school closures during pandemics remain one of the most helpful treatments that can be used to minimize the burden of epidemic illness. It can be concluded that the Coronavirus pandemic has a negative impact on schooling. COVID-19 has a significant impact on school features like as research, academic programs, staff professional development, and jobs in the academic sector, among others. These consequences were felt by educational institutions, instructors, students, parents, and other education stakeholders. The research stresses the need of incorporating technology into education as a whole method of mitigating the impacts of Coronavirus and potential future pandemics through education As a result, the research admits that the decision to close Coronavirus schools throughout the world may be inconvenient, but it is reasonable given the velocity of transmission and the threats presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The extraordinary school closures caused by the Coronavirus serve as a lesson and a warning to the whole educational community, particularly those who have yet to accept or implement developing learning tools that facilitate online or remote education. Education stakeholders must devise strong plans to deal with the post-Coronavirus era (Abodunrin).
Work cited
Onyema, Edeh Michael, et al. “Impact of Coronavirus pandemic on education.” Journal of Education and Practice 11.13 (2020): 108–121.
UNESCO: 290 Million Students Stay Home due to Coronavirus. (2020, March 7). Retrieved April 21, 2020, from learning english. voanews website: https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/unesco-290-million-students-stay[1]home-due-to-coronavirus/5317148.htm
Abodunrin, Oyinlola, Gbolahan Oloye, and Bola Adesola. “Coronavirus pandemic and its implication on global economy.” International journal of arts, languages and business studies 4 (2020).
