4 Major Problems With In-Person Learning During COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has rattled the world by sickening millions and killing hundreds of thousands across the globe. For the health and safety of students, schools across the United States closed and made a rapid switch to remote learning. As the new school year is set to begin, many parents and educators are weighing the feasibility of in-person learning against the problems with remote learning. This blog will discuss the problems of in-person learning in-depth to assist parents and educators to come to a conclusion and evaluate the potential solutions.
Schools Cannot Guarantee Student and Faculty Safety
In accordance with the guidelines the Center for Disease Control has published, since the start of the pandemic the public has had to wash their hands often, use a face covering, and follow social distancing protocols. Whenever you leave your home, you always need to carry a mask with you and social distance at least six feet from others around you. As we prepare to possibly send children to school, we must ask ourselves how can we ensure complete protection for students and staff? The answer is, we can’t.
An official from a Welsh elementary school has admitted that it is impossible to keep all students, especially young children, socially distanced at all times. This is unfeasible as many young children do not understand the severity of the virus and the complications that can arise. Staff members need to accept that children cannot follow safety guidelines without making mistakes, especially if said “mistakes” have the potential to cause an outbreak. Many have pointed out that schools’ history of success, or lack-there-of, in preventing the spread of mere head lice does not inspire many parents to believe that schools have the ability to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
What’s more is that a professor from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, Dimitris Drikakis, also states that social distancing is not enough to ensure protection from the virus. Yes, social distancing offers protection for most individuals, but the virus has the ability to spread up to twenty feet in extreme cases. This equates to greater opportunities for transmission of the virus between students and faculty, especially indoors.
Staggering School Times Makes Child Care Difficult
“Three in four parents of pre-school children find child care difficult in lockdown.”
Some institutions that are planning on reopening this fall are considering a hybrid model of learning. A hybrid model of learning takes the shape of many different strategies but each strategy’s main goal is to use remote and in-person learning simultaneously. For many, this looks like staggering school times, changing bus routes, sectioning classes into smaller groups, and changing school hours.
Miami schools are considering allowing half of the class return for in-person learning while the other half learns remotely, then they would switch every week. A Welsh school also released some plans to return to school with guidelines being: open Monday-Thursday and enact Friday as a deep cleaning day, cut classes down to 8-10 students, have them stay in one room for the entire day, and have each student return for a few days before the end of summer holiday to get acclimated to this new environment.
While hybrid learning may seem like the perfect solution, the staggering of school times creates a child care nightmare. As lockdown measures begin to lessen, many parents are finding themselves returning to work. With the incredible time variability in hybrid models, this can make child care hard for working parents. Researchers in Oxford, Reading, and Southampton in the UK have found that three in four parents of pre-school children find child care difficult in lockdown. Adding the inconsistent and inconvenient school times only brings increased stress for working parents.
More Funding is Required
The return to in-person learning is going to require a significant amount of funding for each school. Schools would need to pay for extra staff, possible hazard pay for faculty, cleaning supplies, more school busses, trained nurses, thermometers, and more. The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) estimates that each school district will approximately need $1,778,139 in funding to cover all expenses to reopen according to new safety guidelines. The Union of Professionals echos this statement stating they believe the cost to reopen public schools would be an estimated $116.5 billion. These costs also do not account for the severe budget cuts and faculty lay-offs that occurred during the lockdown.
School districts are already realizing the difficulties of trying to receive funding to reopen. Tennessee school districts are expecting additional staff, transportation, and protective equipment. While finding staff such as bus drivers has always been a problem, the pandemic has only exasperated this problem with many drivers claiming the pay is not worth the risk. Tennessee school district leaders are discovering that the two trillion dollars in funding passed by Congress from The Emergency Relief Fund is not enough to cover all expenses for proper reopening.
Faculty and Staff are at Risk
“The lack of respect for educators at this time is astounding. We’re consistently being told that our concerns are null and void.”
While many parents are, rightfully, concerned with their children’s safety, the safety of faculty and staff should not be overlooked. The CDC has found that older adults are more vulnerable to not only attracting the virus but having more severe complications when attracted. One in five of teachers in the United States are 55 or older and asking older educators to return to work jeopardizes their own safety and possibly their families’ as well.
However, it’s not only older teachers that are fearful of returning to work, but also younger teachers. In fact, some teachers are preparing wills and updating their life insurance policies. In response to many local and state officials considering school reopenings, a Florida law firm has offered free living wills for teachers. Illinois high school teacher, Lindsey Jensen expresses frustration in being told to risk her health and safety saying “the lack of respect for educators at this time is astounding. We’re consistently being told that our concerns are null and void.”
The upcoming academic year is rapidly approaching and whether we return to in-person learning or stay remote, we must focus on one thing-- recreating the safe environment that school has always been. Schools have been a safe place for students and we must strive to recreate this feeling for students around the nation. When the day finally comes that we can fully return to school, we must welcome students back with open arms and continue to set up students for a very successful future.