How the Pandemic will Change the Education System

İfeoluwa Siddiq Oyelami

As vaccines are popping up from different parts of the world, it seems there’s light at the end of the tunnel. We are looking forward to the post-pandemic period. Several social analysts including educationists have debated on the post-pandemic life without any consensus on the rate and dimensions of the impacts on education. However, even as schools are reopening and kids are back to the classroom, we may not return to the status quo. The pandemic will accelerate the in-process transformation of global education.

The COVID-19 lockdown took its toll on the education system, sent the world’s 1.6 billion students away from the classroom.   Most countries were forced to adopt remote learning, with methods varying from TV and radio programmes to all forms of internet-based learning. This global abrupt change in education style might have put a lot of strains on educators, parents, and students. In fact, for the conventional education market, Covid-19 was a source of heartbreak.

Despite all these, Covid-19 may not necessarily go down in the history of education as a disaster, but rather as a gamechanger or maybe a blessing in disguise. The pandemic has given hints and laid the foundation for a shift in education paradigms that may occur in the 2020s. Henceforth, not only will there be a twist in the schooling pattern, but also in the conceptualization of education. Events during the pandemic are great pointers that the curriculum, educational agents, and standard practices may change in the next few years.

So, what should we be expecting…?

The form of education

This is the most apparent and immediate. As students return to the classroom in most countries, it appears visual lessons are not going anytime soon. In some places, the safety of the school environment is in question. The pandemic period has inspired countries and private edu-investors to build on their distance learning capacity. Even during the post-pandemic era, these structures will remain indispensable. School at all levels will be opened to various kinds of distance learning to augment the learning experience.

 In countries where private individuals champion the edu-market, availability of distance learning infrastructure in case of future emergencies and student’s unforeseen absenteeism will be a focal point of market competition.

Undoubtedly, Covid-19 has speeded the acceptance of EdTech by many years. The increasing demand for the use of technology in schools will lead to more competition in the EdTech market. Thus, devices cheaper and better than ever before.

In the post-pandemic world, practical learning will be enhanced by virtual field trips. During the lockdown, museums, exhibitions, science centres, zoological gardens and other places of educational interests started creating capacities to facilitates virtual excursions.  Consequently, with some forms of subscription, schools would be able to facilitate field trips for students to places from around the world. 

In the post-pandemic era, there will also be an increase in lifelong, borderless, and independent learning. Geoff Spencer writerfor Microsoft Education said about the technological revolution in education “students can be empowered to learn for themselves in flexible, often collaborative ways, both inside and outside classrooms at their own pace”. (Massive Open Online Courses) MOOC platforms which have championed this revolution is fast growing. Just before the pandemic, Research and Markets projected the overall market for online education to reach $350 Billion by 2025. With the pandemic making enrolment increase in hundreds of folds, the market might have exceeded this projection just in 2020.

There may be a mass shift from conventional colleges to MOOCs and distance learning as students get more accustomed to increased screen time. Yes, online learning is inferior to in-person learning. But the human will adapt to it just like they adapted to telephones which are far inferior to proper visitations.

Purpose of education

Although there is no unanimous definition for it, education is summarily an acquisition of cognitive, behavioural, and psychomotor skills to be a better citizen of the society. As the case of other human phenomena, education had witnessed great changes, especially in the last century. Its purpose and mode which were tied to communal,cultural and historical realities have been tailored to suit global modernization. Despite national curriculum which is supposedly associated with local orientation and conscience, globalization has been a core determinant in curriculum policies. Thus, in a neoliberal world, schools tend to prepare students for the competitive labour market and accustom them to global values, and not necessarily within the societal conscience.

Covid-19 already caused a shift in the labour market. Firms now realize the “pointlessness” of some of their employees and are trying to maximise profit through digitalization. The world is taking a faster pace towards the era of industrial revolution 4.0 during the pandemic. Digital and creative skills are more needed than before. Already, the pre-pandemic era has not been very good for social science and humanities graduates, the post-pandemic era may be taking most of them off completely, along with many natural scientists who will be replaced with more sophisticated experts. Thus, as demand for these jobs disappears, there will be a lesser emphasis on them in schools.

Henceforth, behavioural, and psychomotor skills may be far less important to cognitive. Social science like Psychology and related areas may remain very relevant because of the mental effects of the revolution. Religion studies and other secular humanity sciences will go into oblivion and be replaced with more secular and inclusive skills.  Twenty-first-century skills like leadership, peace and strategics, negotiation, critical thinking may be replacing conventional social sciences.

Source: Brookings Education

Education stakeholders

In the aftermath of the pandemic, technology giants like Microsoft, Google, Facebook etc. who have been running various skills workshops and courses may be garnering more stakes in education. There may be overhaul democratization of the curriculum, not because nations are going to leave curriculum in the hands of individuals but because tech giants are going to determine what skills are needed in the society. 

Now, youth want to learn tangible skills such as coding, marketing and sales in a short time and school is getting boring with its “archaic curriculum”. The lockdown has promoted MOOCs already, and many will be pleased to take asynchronous (pre-recorded) courses from “big universities” for cheaper prices. It is worthy of note that many of MOOCs became cheaper in 2020 because of high demands, with many courses offered for free. This led to a great familiarity and gradual acceptance of digital learning tools, that may ultimately snatch away the curriculum from local authorities.

            Aside MOOC, “big universities” may start to roll out more virtual distance learning for the global market at cheaper prices. Taking into consideration the prestige of these institutions and their teachers, students will let go of local universities. As awkward as it may sound, we may be looking forward to a time when people will subscribe for “education packages” on their devices.

The implication of the changes…

As good as some of the speculations may seem, they come with some demerits too. The negative effects of the new educational revolution may cut through the economy, social-culture, and health.

While the speculated changes in education may positively influence the growth of the digital sector, it will be damaging to the conventional teaching profession. Thus, teachers at all levels can only augment their profession by fitting into the new system.

On the national economy, many low-income countries, especially in sub-Sahara, East Asia and Pacific and South Asia, will be trapped in debt while trying to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on education. Debt schemes from the World Bank and its likes will be profiled as “a tablet for a student”, “internet access” and so on.  Senior Strategic Partnerships Manager at the Web Foundation Maiko Nakagaki states “nearly $428 billion will be required to achieve universal connectivity to quality broadband internet in the next ten years.”

The saturation of the internet with all forms of webinars and workshops- as it has started- will pose a lot of competition in the intellectualism and skills teaching. The fact that students all over the world now have access to “best brains” in their field may require local professors to buckle down.

The already existing problem of inclusiveness in education may worsen as internet access would be a great determinant of quality education and reliable certificates.

A major problem that may hit in education in conservative and religious communities, is the problem of nihilism. Borderless education might lead to a serious clash in societal perceptions with the west preying on the rest of the world. Cores of religious and social studies in the curriculum would be replaced with neoliberal values. As a result of these, youth get brainwashed easily to accept the so-called global values that may not conform to their religion and culture.

Precautions

Whether Covid-19 or not, the evolution in the education sector is unstoppable. Covid-19 might just have fast-tracked it. The new evolution is superb in some areas but how can its devastating effects be avoided or minimized?

Investment! … a lot of our countries are still lagging in simple educational infrastructure. There is a need to step this up and invest in necessary groundworks that will meet the challenges of the new trends. This will go a long way in closing the digital divide and solving the problem of inclusiveness. And of course, digitalization should be strengthened, and local innovators and entrepreneurs should be encouraged.

Local contents: our communities should start to work on postmodern but local education content so that youth can primarily learn in the context of their own culture and society. This will go a long way in avoiding the problem of inferiority complex and nihilism.

Great investment in teacher’s education, research and curriculum development should go pari passu. Intellectuals shouldthink outside the box and stopthe“copy and paste” system. We should try to exploit the new trends to the advantage of our society.

MOOCs, webinars and virtual field trips should not be left to the monopoly of western universities and firms. We should not only utilize these means but also develop them. In low-income communities, we should utilize available means like TV and radio to enhance education. For instance, more airtime should be given to educational programmes on local transmitting houses. If possible, education-based stations should be created.

The pandemic has pushed the world into its deepest known global economic recession. UNESCO estimates that 23.8 million additional children and youth may drop out of school. We need to encourage these students to explore cheaper forms of distance learning and skills acquisition.

Amidst all these hullabaloos on education and technology, there should also be strategies to address the social and emotional problems that may come with the educational evolution.  Maybe the best thing we may suggest is a rethink in the purpose of education, but it seems it’s too late to debate that…