Educators expect only minor impact from Covid-19 shutdown

The temporary closure of schools and academic institutions in response to the Covid-19 outbreak will have only minor effects on local education, agree Macau schools, education scholars and government authorities.
Now wrapping up the third consecutive week of suspension, the government has not yet indicated when schools might reopen. Although many expected the impact to be minor, some also warn that the full effects are still difficult to predict as the duration of class suspensions is yet to be determined.
Closed until further notice since January 30, Macau’s education sector has been trying to cope with the measures ordered by the governmental authorities.
Because of their young age and the high concentration of people, school populations are always among the most vulnerable groups when it comes to infections.
When will local schools resume their normal activities? It is a question that no one seems to be able to answer.
It is a situation that leads to other questions – How will this still-unknown suspension period affect the performance of students and teaching staff during this academic year? Will the schools and universities be able to enforce plans to make up for the lost time?
The Times learned from several sources within the education sector that the effects of the temporary closure due to Covid-19 are likely to be minor, although some also agreed that it is still too soon to know how schools can make up for the lost time and how the students will respond to such efforts.
The government’s official line, stated at a recent press conference, is that the health of the population takes priority over all else. Besides, a representative of the government recently said, a few weeks of suspension is not a lot in the context of a 15-year education.
Questioned by the Times, the vice president of the board of the Macau Portuguese School (EPM), Zélia de Oliveira Baptista, said, “The extent of how much [lost time can be recovered] will depend on the number of [school] days that had to be closed. Only when we resume the classes, will we be about to evaluate this after the teachers of each subject assess all the data.”
For EPM, the problem caused by the long interruption of the classes runs through all years and school levels to a similar extent, so plans to make up for the lost time will be enforced across all levels. That being said, the years that are subject to examinations at the end of the school year will be given further attention.
“We will try to do the same for all years and classes, but the subjects that are subject to [Portuguese national level] exams will be our priority in the measures we will take,” Baptista said, adding that happens mostly with subjects from grade nine as well as eleventh and twelfth grades. In the Portuguese education system, students must complete national level exams to access the tertiary education level.
In a comment to the Times, the head of school at The International School of Macao (TIS), Mark Lockwood highlighted the need to follow strict protocols and procedures to avoid any contamination with the virus, adding that the safety and health of everyone involved in the education community is the highest priority.
“To date, the impact on the students’ studies has been minimal. When we return to regular classes, we will have strict protocols and procedures in place that will align with the government’s requirements to protect students, staff, parents, and visitors,” Lockwood said.
“At TIS, our teachers are working hard to promote and deliver the learning through online platforms. It is going very well, but as with all schools in Macau, we are looking forward to getting back to working with our students in classrooms when it is safe to do so.”
The head of school noted also that TIS is establishing plans and strategies according to the evolution of Covid-19 in the region and the neighboring areas, communicating with the community regularly.
Teresa Vong, an associate professor of the University of Macau’s Faculty of Education, expressed the opinion that the suspension of formal learning, although it may carry some consequences, in general terms and as long as it is not too long, should not cause any significant difference in terms of the overall academic performance of students.
“Suspension of school, of course, has some effects on formal school learning because we are supposed to have students having all-rounded learning activities at school. However, I personally don’t think this – hopefully – short suspension will bring many effects on the academic performance of the students,” Vong said.
The Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) has already said that it will not require schools and education centers to make up for lost time by, for example, cutting short the summer break period. Instead, it has recommended that schools make use of the suspension to work on revision, mostly via e-learning and remote study.
“As far as I know, most of the schools have provided some kind of e-learning and more importantly, if we consider the [15-year-long] curriculum in a broader sense, instead of [a single] academic year, then we have more space both for teaching and learning,” said Vong.
Building on this point, the DSEJ told the Times that the measures enforced, and guidelines provided to the schools aimed to provide help and let students, parents, and schools rest assured that the temporary class suspension will not harm the students’ education.
“The class suspension period caused by force majeure such as typhoons, rainstorms, epidemics, among others, can be included in the 195 school days that are stipulated in the ‘Curriculum Framework’,” the DSEJ replied, reaffirming the non-necessity of schools to enforce extra classes or extra time in this academic year to compensate for lost time during this critical period.
Indeed, for Vong, the Covid-19-induced halt to education provides a rare opportunity to rethink a few aspects of the education system.
“This incident is a good chance for teachers, principals, and policy-makers to rethink how learning really takes place and in what ways students enjoy learning and benefit more from learning. During normal school days, students are scheduled to learn lesson-by-lesson; they don’t have any choice or even space for further exploration.”
“During this period, some schools only request that students study two subjects a day. In this way, students have more time to explore the learning content in-depth,” she said.
Besides, she noted also that there has been a significant amount of money invested in the development of information technology resources that have not been fully put to use.
“There are two reasons [to justify why they are not being used]: firstly, e-classes are not fully used at the school level; secondly, students who stay in the mainland can’t access them,” the scholar noted.
Vong also believes now is a good opportunity to develop a child-parent relationship, provided that the parents do not need to work. But, for children who have not yet developed self-regulated learning, in cases where their parents have not been exempted from work, “these children will [suffer] and fall back even more. We need to identify this ‘disadvantaged’ group and offer more support in the future.”
On the use of e-learning and remote study, the DSEJ said yesterday that it “took into consideration students’ abilities and their situation and equipment at home” when issuing instructions. “The learning content should focus on revision,” the education authority said, and “students’ learning performance (e.g. homework) during class suspension will not count toward their academic results.”
“For the first two weeks after class resumption, [classes] will continue to focus on consolidating the knowledge learned previously,” the DSEJ instructions continue. “New lessons should be taught and learning assessments should be made only after students have adapted to class again. Assessment of content [examinations] should only include the learning content taught in the classroom,” and not during the self-learning period.
These instructions should be followed by all schools under the DSEJ’s Schools Network, which comprises the majority of the schools in Macau.