Proposal for a Merged Sessions WS 107: Education Opportunities & Challenges in Times of Crisis, WS 248: eLearning: How to Tackle Accessibility Challenges Online.
Proposed New Headline: COVID19 and Education: How to Mitigate Knowledge Divides when Learning Turns Online
The recent crisis has necessitated of moving teaching and learning online at an unprecedented scale, causing more than 1.6 billion children and youth to be out of school in 191 countries, which is equal to 80 percent of the world's enrolled students, as well as 63 million primary and secondary teachers.
As experts estimate, the global lockdown of education institutions is going to cause major and probably uneven interruption in students’ learning. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed that most countries have very unequal education systems, and the negative impacts will be felt disproportionately by children from poor and rich families, children with disabilities. Millions of households either do not have access to broadband networks or can’t afford service, being cut off from educational opportunities and deprived of their right to free or accessible education.
According to UNESCO data, school closures negatively impact student learning outcomes, too. The disadvantages are especially disproportionate for under-privileged learners who tend to have fewer educational opportunities beyond school. During the lockdown, parents generally are asked to facilitate the learning of children at home and often struggle to perform this task. This is especially true for parents with limited education and resources.
Though the use of distance learning programmes and open educational resources or platforms can mitigate the disruption of education, yet intensify other problems, such as hacking and cybercrime.
Lack of access to technology and unequal access to educational resources can prevent students, particularly in rural areas or from disadvantaged or low economic status families, to benefit from online education. This can deepen and amplify existing inequalities, widen polarization and knowledge divide, impeding to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.