SA teachers have risen to the challenges of remote and digital teaching with remarkable resilience and zeal, with very little warning or lead-time, according to an education expert.

According to Dr Felicity Coughlan, Academic Director at ADvTECH, “Teachers have been wonderfully innovative, whether or not they have had access to extensive educational technology or had been required to use WhatsApp or other day-to-day communication tools to keep in touch with the children they were teaching. The mindset of making do and re-inventing is a precious one we should not lose.”

She said now is the time to focus on the basics and to aim for consolidation.

It is true that for some this is easier than for others. There is particular concern about the Grade 12 class as well as the millions of children being left behind as education continues for some.

“These social-justice imperatives are not trivial, but are not addressed by the entire system freezing. It is, however, vital that those in positions of privilege who are able to still be learning effectively acknowledge this privilege with humility. If your school or class can continue learning, then this time needs to be used to develop global citizens just as much as it must be used to entrench skills. Content can and will follow. Don’t mistake quantity for quality.”

She said ADvTECH Schools have integrated global competencies in their curricula for several years, and that those schools and educators who have not yet had the time to do so, or have treated these as peripheral, now have the perfect opportunity to embed them in ‘normal’ teaching and learning.

The world of the future just came crashing through our door,” said Dr Coughlan.

“The Global Competencies of thinking skills (creative, critical and reflexive), research skills (collecting, recording, organising, interpreting), communication skills (personal interaction with others), social skills (personal behaviour) and self-management are the only ways that teachers and students successfully will navigate this period and what follows it.

“So, for teachers developing lessons and content, and schools still grappling with how to approach learning at this time, consider that less really is more. If there is therefore a little bit of a silver lining to this disaster, it is that we now have the ideal opportunity to develop these skills, and that even those schools and educators who are not as well-positioned as others can include them.”