It is a no-brainer that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on different industries. The education space however having had rotational attendance, sporadic school closures and days off for specific grades has resulted in a years’ worth of work lost which has undoubtedly affected students in more ways than we can think of.
Covid impact on education in south africa
Two studies done, namely, Early Grade Reading Study and Funda Wande Evaluation respectively show that grade 4’s in 2020 reading in their home language learned about a quarter of what they should have covered in English as a first additional language and grade 2’s in no-fee schools learnt less than half of what they should at a maximum. The daily mavericks168 suggests an influx of children going into remedial streams, massive increases in sign-ups to virtual learning platforms, increases in demand for private tutoring services in much lower grades, increased need for school drug-testing, and reports from teachers of significant declines in understanding. The managing director of Master Maths, Adrie Schoeman has expressed her concerns about the changes experienced in her line of work and increased enrollment in these private tutoring centers countrywide for learners as young as grade 4s. Franchise owners have reported the significant recent decline in understanding, reasoning, and applying the required skills for all grades since March 2020 and another account by the head of a mid-range fee school in Midrand, Gauteng said, it has been noted by the teachers that there is significant decline in work ethic, study skills concentration and the ability to work to deadline since the pandemic started.
The Recovery
In 2020, a recovery plan was set in to commence in 2021 and was to be for a duration of 3 years. As part of this recovery plan, the minister of basic education Angie Motshekga said “The basis of the recovery ATPs(annual teaching plans) is the trimmed curriculum; but now includes the learning losses to be recovered in each grade, based on the learning losses in the previous grade” . The idea to mitigate the impact loss of time, from 2021 to 2023, they will gradually recover learning loss by simultaneously building the on foundational content required for the next grade, with COVID-19 restrictions still put in place.
Adaptive Learning as a solution
Adaptive learning addresses the differences in ability by targeting teaching practices. This ranges from technological programs to intelligent systems can be used in the classroom environment. To start, one must look at the needs and interests of each student giving the custom learning programs in the adaptive model space data to create a personalized learning path for each learner with immediate assistance and specific resources and provide immediate feedback providing a unique experience and reduces the amount of tedious work for the instructor themselves. In the words of Christine Muhigana, “remote learning has been a lifeline for some children but for the most vulnerable in South Africa, even this was out of reach”. This type of learning usually occurs on a web-based platform, the software containing all valuable information related to the classes and able to guide learners on their learning journey. The platform can come in either a form of an interface, an interactive program or a learning flow, with the possibilities of also having forms of content-based or an adaptive filtering program. This type of model can reach diverse groups of students. This style of learning/teaching could be beneficial in the sense that because of how broad and diverse it is, it is able to cater to diverse types of students, especially underachievers as they would be able to reach their goals due to the unique style of teaching received thus improving confidence and success of all those who try it out. Studies continue to show that the adaptive model has reaped tons of benefits, for instance, students felt more in control over their learning , less dishonesty cases in their academics, students choose the speed at which they learn therefore giving the students more motivation to study as they see their own progress due to visible progress charts, students reported to be learning more if content was being taught using adaptive learning, experienced less stress with moving on to next chapters as by then students would have been ready and a greater overall success due to the dedication to the content .
LEFA Learning Solution
Parents have taken drastic measures to ensure that their children still get the same amount of content taught to them in record time and have since sought out other alternatives including online platforms that offer educational services, not forgetting that when the need for private tutoring is at its highest, more parents are experiencing financial crunch and are severely strained. An example of an adaptive learning platform would be Lefa Education, Sign up below for a free diagnostic test to see exactly where your child is struggling and where they doing well.