NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF THE CORONAVIRUS IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR – THE EXAMPLE OF A REGION OF RWANDA

The coronavirus has suddenly spread to different parts of the world.

In the education sector in particular, the consequences have been very unfortunate, especially in my home community.

Schools and other services were suspended without warning, and students and teachers were left at home for some time. It was not easy to deal with this situation, which required learning through the internet, but the economic, social and cultural conditions in most cases did not allow this.

After a long time, classes resumed, but slowly, as the fear was very intense. The effects of the pendulum were harmful everywhere, especially in undeveloped countries like ours.

During the lockdown period, students looked for small paid jobs and forgot about school life. When the schools reopen, not all of these children are back. Some girls married early and some boys changed their social status by marrying at an early age.

Teachers, too, during this period, started other additional paid jobs or money-making projects. When the schools reopened, not all of them returned to ordinary school life. In addition, the coronavirus had taken away some very important people in families and others remained too poor, making it difficult for the students to return in favourable conditions to study.

Adhering to the Ministry of Health’s standards and rules to avoid covid 19 was not at all easy. New techniques were needed to sensitise students who were doing other work to return to school and to encourage poor parents to find school materials for their children. “Now, getting enough students into school and continuing to avoid covid-19 is not easy for us,” say many teachers and parents.

All this has a significant impact on the performance of the students, as so far even those who are in school are not learning as well as they should. It is in this context that new pedagogical methods, in the form of games, are needed to make children love school.

It is also necessary to find a new way of contacting the parents or guardians of the children in order to get the adult people who can help the pupils to have the qualities of a student. Parents, teachers and even policy makers should work together towards the same goal.

May God bless everyone praying for the disappearance of the coronavirus in the world and the recovery of the education system in our respective countries.

 

BAREKAYO Daniel, GPEN Ambassador, RWANDA
05/2021