Home Schooling: Challenges to Overcome

 

How to prepare our children to face the current situation?

#https// boardofsecondaryeducation.com # www.pbse.nic.in # https://www.ed.gov/ # https://www.idp.com/india/study-in-australia/education-system/ # http://government.ru. # edu

Soon the schools are going to open in India and many other countries. Is everything going to be the same as it was before the pandemic? Will the schools and Children be able to follow the guidelines of safety? Will all the parents be able to send their children willingly to school? Will the hands of parents be shaky while signing no objection certificate to attend schools?

Yes! Everyone – excluding regions and countries where scientific literacy is yet to spread – is afraid of taking any social step, especially about sending their children to schools! Reason? Covid-19 has proved itself to be the deadliest of all the contagious diseases so far. Covid-19 came like a thief and made a mockery of all the super powers. Even if mankind is redeemed of it, the phantoms of death and devastation are not going to let us escape into ‘utopian’ peace of mind.

Hygienic living: some future considerations

The quality of sanitation will decide the admissions in a school. To study in a zero virus, zero bacteria, zero fungal environment will become costlier than today.  Moreover, the aim to achieve a super hygienic environment is impossible even for the most developed countries. This fact will influence a considerable percent of people to go for home schooling. In those countries where home schooling is already being practiced can and will easily spread their business tentacles to those countries where parents are not satisfied with the prevailing unhygienic conditions of classroom teaching. 

Home schooling has its own drawbacks.

The basic purpose of schooling is to produce socially equipped individuals who can fit into the network of contemporary society in a natural and productive manner. This is only possible when children have freedom to play and learn together. They must be free to develop personal friendships, group leaderships, and fellowships for the sake of building a healthy nation. These goals have been better achieved in off line school environment.

This brings up the Question:                                                                                                                                                                  Is the home schooling around the world suitable to prepare the children to fulfill the requirements of education?

I have met some US & Australian students undergoing homeschooling. They seemed to me—excepting few – as   dumb as any ‘driven cattle’. The children were unable to strike a normal relationship even with the relatives!??Home schooling isolates the children from the rest of the world. This system is more likely to promote asocial and even antisocial behavior in kids and growing children. This does not mean that homeschooling is of no use at all. It is definitely useful when social distancing seems to be, and probably is the only option to make a difference between life and death of individual and the community.

 We must understand that homeschooling is not ‘something is better than nothing’, because homeschooling is a time tested system that is full of potential and possibilities of improvement and improvisation to suit the future needs. If it gives proper opportunity to the students to interact and grow together by participating in online group work like presentations, and all the online ways to pair and share and even PE Practical in live class mode, it can definitely be recognized as the second best option.

 At present, students have to sit in front of the screen almost in a passive mode to attend the classes. This means a lot of improvement is required. Some of them are, as suggested below.

(a)    For proper online classes the syllabus has to be revised and reduced. The global aim of the online schooling should be to equip the students with tools of learning with research oriented quarry into the topic being studied.

(b)   Health and Hygiene should be given priority in the syllabus of school and college. These topics must also be merged with other subjects as much as possible.

(c)    Teaching –learning time should be reduced to 3 hours per day. Rest of the free time at home students can be kept engaged in H.W. project work and reading the listening to the videos of previous / next lessons. The purpose of home work should be self study in and interesting way with research orientation.

(d)   Each day at the end of the lesson four to five SA questions should be given for class work evaluation and internal marks. The purpose is to make each class important. For the purpose Google forms or like applications/teaching platforms should be used.

(e)   Instructional strategies like Flipped Classroom should be utilized to promote student engagement and learning. It makes the class more meaningful.

(f)     Use proper tools like Google Voice, Zoom, Whats App Groups, live lessons video chatting, etc.

Homeschooling is impossible without parental participation at home. Parental education is the need of the hour. Parental education is a very touchy subject, especially at present because Covid-19 has affected the household economy overnight and changed the whole world order, requiring new values to adjust at such a short notice to the challenging demands of making the education system better in a progressive manner.

The role of family has become even more important. It is only well oriented parents who can create a positive environment that is conducive for the overall growth of children. Parents are responsible for maintaining a balance between study time and other activities. Other activities must include sports, Yoga, spending quality time with kids instead of sitting and watching television. 

https://www.albert.io/blog/strategies-fo-teaching-online/

Reduced Working Hours: Home study has put an added responsibility on the parents. Now the parents require more free time at home. The governments around the world can help in reducing / relaxing the office hours/ work at home hours for the proper growth of children undergoing home schooling.

 

Unified World Education System: The Only Answer

# https://youtu.be/e46mR7v5yvc # https://en.unesco.org. #

To restore and maintain the health of our sick planet our children require developing stewardship. This is not possible if the world education system is left to take its own course. All the children should be enlightened and active participants in promoting the health of mother earth like Greta Thunberg and the like.

To say anything—except in China—is easy but when it comes to do the same we forget it like the ‘flaunting’ poly-bags held in our hands.

Let us wipe the future tears of our children by mending our ways today through whatever education we may give to our children today!