By Mr Chen
By now, no one can live in denial that COVID-19 has impacted all of us in our daily lives. A year ago, the acronym HBL (home based learning) was only known to teachers and students (at least the more attentive ones) but now, it has entered the consciousness of the country, if not, the world.
In the old days, parents were forced to deal with HBL, say by taking leave to help their kids at home for only a handful of days a year. However, in 2020, HBL has grown into a 3-month horror in the eyes of some parents.
In the old days, HBL was mostly limited to asynchronous learning i.e. kids logged into SLS or whatever proprietary platform and learned at their own pace through prerecorded videos and preset activities. Now, nobody talks about HBL without connecting (literally and figuratively) the concept to synchronous learning via Zoom, Google Meet or MS Teams.
Limitations of HBL and its Implementation
Let us admit that HBL has limitations compared to classroom learning. For one, how does a student learn practical skills through HBL? Virtual reality is as the name implies – virtual.
Second, the teacher can no longer “have a good feel” of the class without seeing the body language of his students. Are the students paying attention behind their computer screens or are they playing an online game? Are they even behind their computers? He also can no longer see their furrowed brows when they do not understand a concept. (Before I get flamed by anyone, I am a supporter of HBL as it has its benefits but that topic is for discussion on another day.)
Furthermore, in the scramble to adopt HBL as COVID-19 hit Singapore hard, time and efficiency have to be sacrificed to climb the learning curve for both teacher and student. Curriculum lags behind compared to previous years.
If anyone is not convinced, simply go to Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) to find out the topics eliminated from various subjects in the 2020 exams for PSLE, ‘N’, ‘O’ and ‘A’ Levels. Therefore, Primary 6, Secondary 4 & 5 and JC2 students in 2020 should count their blessings. Yes, their studies have been disrupted but I boldly opined that the “discounts” in their examination curricula already make up for the disruption.
(Admittedly, this may pose a problem further down the road. E.g. in the transition from P6 to S1, will they lag behind as their P6 syllabus did not cover certain topics? But let’s restrict our discussion to 2020.)
The Truly Disadvantaged Groups
I feel the truly disadvantaged groups are the students in Primary 5, Secondary 3 and JC1 right now. They too have been disrupted in their studies by COVID-19. Will they receive any “discounts” in their examination curricula in 2021? I doubt so. By then, HBL would have become the norm as a backup plan and can substitute for classroom learning seamlessly and on demand.
Yet, this also means that schools and teachers have to play catch-up as they try to cover the entire curriculum to prepare for the national examinations in 2021. Except for the brightest students, rushing is never a good thing for teaching and learning. Unable to cope with the hectic pace, some students become stragglers and are left behind. Some may even give up studying altogether as they simply cannot understand anything the teacher is dishing out. You often can spot these students in their dazed look and uninterested eyes.
The Way Forward
As much as I would like to say that tuition can come to the rescue of such students, tuition has its limitations too. A typical tuition lesson lasts 1.5-2 hours a week and can cover the gaps in understanding of a student as long as these gaps are not the gaping type. If the student was already weak academically, COVID-19 has just exacerbated the condition.
The best way forward is for parents (or the student himself) to recognise that he has academic issues at the onset and decide to seek help, possibly through tuition. I cannot stress enough that parental support is essential. Parents should never stop to go into the world of their children and seek to understand them better. Be firm, yes but temper that firmness with love and concern.
Please contact us for the latest fees and schedule of our tuition programmes.