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COVID-19: The impact on the education system

22 April 2020 | Story Prof Thidziambi Phendla. | Photo Supplied

Prof Phendla UFS_read more — Prof Thidziambi Phendla.

The Hollywood movie, Contagion, acutely reminded me of the impact of COVID-19 on our education our education system. The many parallels between this movie and what is unfolding worldwide today in unbelievable. Nine years ago, who would have predicted that the world would find itself right in the middle of the plot and enacting the scenes in Contagion?

There is growing concern about our education system with many asking whether the school year is ruined.

For some it may be ruined and for others less so. Parents for disadvantaged communities do not have the means, knowledge and resources to support their children’s learning during the lockdown whereas those from more advantaged communities may access information on Department of Basic Education (DBE) and other websites to support home schooling during these times. For those who did not have these opportunities the loss of school time may thus have a much greater impact.

Embracing homeschooling
However, the school calendar year may equally be extended to early next year. In any event, we already have a system that allows for aggrotats, supplementary exams that runs into the new year, each year. The academic year can be aligned to close accommodate the lost time.

This is the right time for parents to embrace homeschooling of their children. UNESCO’s “COVID-19 Education response” provides a list of educational applications, platforms and resources aims to help parents, teachers, schools and school administrators facilitate student learning and provide psychosocial support during periods of school closure. Most of the solutions are free and many cater to multiple languages. The lists are categorised based on distance learning needs and most of them offer functionalities across multiple categories (https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/solutions).

On the one hand, for the majority of learners and students in South Africa, especially from impoverished communities, distance learning will pose a great challenge. Majority of these communities have less access to digital devices and online solutions. The DBE should work with the SABC and consider opening a free 24 hours learning channel, as a platform to provide further support to distance learning and teaching. Radio remains the cheapest and most effective means for this

On the other hand, the situation is different with some private or IEB schools. Most learners from these schools are already trained to use distance learning platforms. For example, during this lockdown, my 13year old niece starts her school day at 07:30 every day without fail. The school uses several strategies including the Microsoft Teams to support teaching and learning. Each learner has a laptop, completes home-work, assignments and write open book tests. In this scenario, at least 80% of efficient learning and teaching occurs. The difference between the two scenarios is a matter of inequalities, equity and poverty which still prevalent in South Africa.

An unequal school system
For many years the slogan was: “Liberation first then education” maybe it is time for “life and health first”. Even in the most difficult times people have found a way to learn – think of those on Robin Island in the apartheid years. We should imitate their example and not wait for the government to provide. Maybe libraries are an essential function that should remain open in these times.

Protracted student protests in South Africa over the past few years gave universities an opportunity to explore online education as an alternative to contact teaching and learning, and have put them in a better position to deal with current shutdowns necessitated by the need to contain COVID-19.

The pandemic exposed the glaring inequalities, equity and poverty that continues to exist, in particular, in education systems and country in general. Those who have the latitude to remain indoors and maintain the social distancing are the middle and upper classes of our society. These groups have access to data to support online educational programs, while the poor barely survive to put food on their tables.

For many years the world was expecting a virus that could spread globally (e.g. the swine flu) but nothing was done. With the myriad of challenges facing, including downgrading to a junk state, funds depleted through corruption at various levels, our country could not be at a worse position than now.

Lessons from the lockdown
One lessons from the lockdown has exposed the failures and shortcomings of not only our education system, but also the entire ecosystem. Huge inequalities still exist in education systems across the globe. Universities are grappling with a myriad of problems including teaching online. The COVID-19 pandemic forced campuses to shut down and move many functions like graduation, examinations, conferences and other collaborations to the back. Another positive outcome of the pandemic is the sense of unity it created among political, cultural, religious and social organisations in South Africa and across the globe. Consequently, the most important lesson is that lives matter more than education.

As our president, Cyril Ramaphosa said, “We are currently in unchartered territory, which we have never had to navigate before”. It is therefore, very difficult to forecast the full degree of the short-, medium- or long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education system. The longer the virus remains, the greater and more permanent changes may be. Certain things will probably change forever. Not only will our conception of going to office to work alter, but also our whole conceptualization of what a university is will change. We will probably see universities becoming more and virtual and operated from a highly decentralized basis.

Prof Thidziambi Phendla is currently manager of Work Integrated Learning at the University of the Free State. She is the Founder and Director of Domestic Worker Advocacy Forum (DWAF); and The Study Clinic Surrogate Supervision; Chair of Council: Tshwane North TVET College (Ministerial appointment).

News Archive

Gender bias still rife in African Universities

2007-08-03

At the lecture were, from the left: Prof. Magda Fourie (Vice-Rector: Academic Planning), Prof. Amina Mama (Chair: Gender Studies, University of Cape Town), Prof. Engela Pretorius (Vice-Dean: Humanties) and Prof. Letticia Moja (Dean: Faculty of Health Sciences).
Photo: Stephen Collett

Gender bias still rife in African Universities

Women constitute about 30% of student enrolment in African universities, and only about 6% of African professors are women. This is according to the chairperson of Gender Studies at the University of Cape Town, Prof Amina Mama.

Prof Mama was delivering a lecture on the topic “Rethinking African Universities” as part of Women’s Day celebrations at the University of the Free State (UFS) today.

She says the gender profile suggests that the majority of the women who work in African universities are not academics and researchers, but rather the providers of secretarial, cleaning, catering, student welfare and other administrative and support services.

She said that African universities continue to display profound gender bias in their students and staffing profiles and, more significantly, are deeply inequitable in their institutional and intellectual cultures. She said women find it difficult to succeed at universities as they are imbued with patriarchal values and assumptions that affect all aspects of life and learning.

She said that even though African universities have never excluded women, enrolling them presents only the first hurdle in a much longer process.

“The research evidence suggests that once women have found their way into the universities, then gender differentiations continue to arise and to affect the experience and performance of women students in numerous ways. Even within single institutions disparities manifest across the levels of the hierarchy, within and across faculties and disciplines, within and between academic and administrative roles, across generations, and vary with class and social background, marital status, parental status, and probably many more factors besides these”, she said.

She lamented the fact that there is no field of study free of gender inequalities, particularly at postgraduate levels and in the higher ranks of academics. “Although more women study the arts, social sciences and humanities, few make it to professor and their research and creative output remains less”, she said.

Prof Mama said gender gaps as far as employment of women within African universities is concerned are generally wider than in student enrolment. She said although many women are employed in junior administrative and support capacities, there continues to be gross under-representation of women among senior administrative and academic staff. She said this disparity becomes more pronounced as one moves up the ranks.

“South African universities are ahead, but they are not as radically different as their policy rhetoric might suggest. A decade and a half after the end of apartheid only three of the 23 vice-chancellors in the country are women, and women fill fewer than 30% of the senior positions (Deans, Executive Directors and Deputy Vice-Chancellors)”, she said.

She made an observation that highly qualified women accept administrative positions as opposed to academic work, thus ensuring that men continue to dominate the ranks of those defined as ‘great thinkers’ or ‘accomplished researchers’.

“Perhaps women simply make realistic career choices, opting out of academic competition with male colleagues who they can easily perceive to be systematically advantaged, not only within the institution, but also on the personal and domestic fronts, which still see most African women holding the baby, literally and figuratively”, she said

She also touched on sexual harassment and abuse which she said appears to be a commonplace on African campuses. “In contexts where sexual transactions are a pervasive feature of academic life, women who do succeed are unlikely to be perceived as having done so on the basis of merit or hard work, and may be treated with derision and disbelief”, she said.

She, however, said in spite of broader patterns of gender and class inequality in universities, public higher education remains a main route to career advancement and mobility for women in Africa.

“Women’s constrained access has therefore posed a constraint to their pursuit of more equitable and just modes of political, economic and social development, not to mention freedom from direct oppression”, she said.

Prof Mama concluded by saying, “There is a widely held agreement that there is a need to rethink our universities and to ensure that they are transformed into institutions more compatible with the democratic and social justice agendas that are now leading Africa beyond the legacies of dictatorship, conflict and economic crisis, beyond the deep social divisions and inequalities that have characterised our history”.

She said rethinking universities means asking deeper questions about gender relations within them, and taking concerted and effective action to transform these privileged bastions of higher learning so that they can fulfil their pubic mandate and promise instead of lagging behind our steadily improving laws and policies.

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt.stg@ufs.ac.za
02 August 2007

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