Chief Education Officer, Mr. Bren Romney, has taken time to praise teachers and other members of staff for their work in setting up the e-learning platforms for students studying at home.
“They have been literally working online in planning to prepare for the students so we are at a good spot,” he told The Anguillian newspaper. “It is not perfect as yet, but we are getting there. We are getting it balanced to continue the education of our children.”
Mr. Romney recalled that it was fortuitous that e-learning was started in the classroom some years ago, and for a time as this when the system is now being used to teach students at home.
“It is a good thing that we started very early since 2011 when I was still in the classroom having come back from university,” he reflected. “The Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School was already using an e-learning platform and we did a lot of training of teachers since then. So our teachers were already familiar with e-learning platforms and using it at different levels.
“When we closed down schools on March 16, this year, because of the covid-19 disease, and reverted to e-learning, it was not entirely new – but it took some adjustments for parents and students and came with a lot of challenges. Parents also found themselves in situations where they had to explain certain things to students which , before, they would leave for the classroom teacher to take care of. Students were also not accustomed to doing school work entirely online so there were some challenges. Then there was a lack of computer devices and internet at the home to contend with.
“As we were already using these platforms, it however made it a lot easier than it would have been. I think it would have been disastrous if we were never using those platforms before – and were not familiar with the process.
“I am pleased that with the majority of our teachers, there was a comfort level already with the platforms so it was easy to transition to them and continue the education process. I am also pleased because we just promoted a teacher, Mrs. Wenonah Lawrence, known as ‘Teacher Wendy’, from the Adrian T. Hazell School, as the new Curriculum Officer for IT at the Department of Education. She has a Master’s degree and is pursuing a doctorate in Technology Integration online; and is the person leading teachers and building the capacity for e-learning. She is supported by a team of two persons – an intern and one of our senior clerical officers. As we speak, they are now working online with teachers on setting up classrooms, transferring and organising content and helping them to trouble-shoot any technical issues that come up. I am able to work with them directly and Mrs. Lawrence is supervised by Ms. Sandra Fahie, Head of the Curriculum Unit.”
Meanwhile, the Chief Education Officer pointed to a number of challenges to the e-learning process. Among them is that “a number of our students, from low-income homes, don’t have computing devices; and when they don’t have those, it is most likely that they don’t have internet access in the home,” he said.
He continued: “We have received assistance from a number of our partners to provide some computer devices which we are now ordering to help those students from low-income homes. We are working with our partners – Digicel and Flow – to see if we can secure low packages of either donated internet or a very-reduced rate for educational purposes. These are the two challenges that tend to top the list; but we have other challenges coming from students, some parents and also some teachers who are engaging students. “
Mr. Romney took the opportunity to encourage parents to create quiet learning spaces within the home where students can continue their e-learning education; and to assist them where possible.
