New Challenges of Formal Education at the time of the Covid 19 pandemic




Introduction:

First of all, I thank the Blogchatter Admins for challenging me with this opportunity--  publish ten posts in my blog for the Blogchatter Half Marathon. 

After thinking long and hard, I chose the theme-- The Challenges of Formal Education, Globally.  Education is the field I'm familiar with; I had a career in teaching.  And for the most part of my career, I spent in African nations.  And, formal education always has got a fair share of challenges from various angles. Needless to say, the Covid-19 pandemic aggravated them, made it multifaceted.  This, I want to highlight in my first two posts: 1. A brief look into the Covid-19 Challenges and the New Normal. 2. The Challenges of Digital Education and the Digital Divide. 


I take the motivation for the views I showcase in the posts generally from my readings.  When I point out the general challenges in the methodology in education, I base it on the learning theories in education; Post No.3. Learning Theories in Brief, No. 4. Is Learning an Individual or a Social Activity?  When I point out the challenges at a deeper level, I base it on the subject I taught--Mathematics and the research I did in the field of Mathematics Education while I was teaching in South Africa. Post No.5. Philosophy of Mathematics Learning.  Post.No. 6. Social Constructivism in Mathematics Education. Post No. 7. Kerala School of Mathematics.  

Coming to the question of the origin of the Covid, we hear many theories. Post No. 5. The Origin of the Corona Virus.  Once we lend our ears to these theories, we will have to agree to the roles we play to avoid future pandemics.  Posts 9. Post-Covid- New Normal. 10. Redefining education.

I'm not planning for long posts. I might also change the order and the headings as I approach them. 

Post -1 

 1. A brief look into the Covid-19 Challenges and the New Normal.

We're not doomsayers.  We want everything to be sorted to regain normalcy soon.  When the pandemic hit us by the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020, I'm sure we were all thinking about it this way. But, then we had no familiarity with the true nature of the pandemic.  

Now, we have another story to tell -of uncertainty and fear; when will it end? And when and how it happens in what state of affairs we would find ourselves in.  And there are doubts, serious doubts hovering over our mind: will we ever regain the old normalcy to which we cling on nostalgically?  The answer is also somehow unfolding; we have to be prepared for the new normal. That is a learning process in general.  We have to learn new attitudes, new working modes, new lifestyles, and a new moral discipline and philosophy for life.  For all that, the system of our formal education needs to be subjected to overhauling.  This is not the case of a single nation, global. 

This pandemic is unlike an epidemic, a disaster like a tsunami or an earthquake. In the latter cases, the people affected come from a small area in nations or nations. However, there is no single nation in my understanding that has not been affected by Covid- 19, lost people's lives in the multitudes. 

The New Normal

However, even when we identify the pandemic as a global issue and shows no discrimination when infecting people in the nations, what hits us hard is, the global population is not considered a homogenous group or equal in status; it is heterogeneous, a mix of myriad varieties based on race, skin colour, varna/castes.  Add to this the developmental and regional status--developed, developing, North, South, etc.  This already has taken an unpopular role to determines people's chances to get the first step in the recovery of the pandemic--to get vaccinated.  

What is the vaccine scenario at the present time globally? World's richest nations have bought one billion more vaccines than needed for their citizens so that people from poorer nations probably will not be getting a Covid-19 vaccine this year. This is termed Vaccine nationalism.  This is rich nations prioritising the need for vaccinating their citizens at the expense of the citizens in the poor nations.  

India and South Africa bid to wave the Covid -19 vaccine patents for a period in the sixty-three member World Trade Organisation (WTO). Fifty nations supported it, but the rich nations blocked it.   This would have made the developing nations produce their own vaccines and drugs that would have helped the people closer to reaching a new normal pandemic. 

The stories of the hurdles from finding a new normal for people in developing and poor nations perhaps have no end. 

This post is part of the BlogChatter Half Marathon.







 




Comments

  1. This is definitely going to be interesting.

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    1. This is defineitely a reality; people in the poor nations are alredy deprived of their vaccination right due to the rich nations hoarding the drug.

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  2. Sadly the pandemic has not united the world but shown us as divided! Thanks for bringing out this problem. by writing about it.

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    Replies
    1. You're right, you expect the pandemic has the potential to close down the differences, but the opposite is happening. The neo-liberal policies are as charming as brutal.

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