education
Kindergarten and COVID-19
How has COVID-19 impacted kindergartens and their pupils ?
In 2019 , when Hong Kong parents first experienced school closures due to safety concerns arising from the protests , who would have imagined it to be a pre-curser to a year of online learning ?
During the first wave of COVID 19-enforced closures , it initially seemed a bit of a novelty . We were optimistic that it wouldn ’ t be for long . But as time stretched , many families - those lucky enough to have the option - decided to head to alternative countries so that their children could attend ‘ real ’ school , in person .
As the situation intensified and COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic , it became clear that Hong Kong was not only one of the safer places to be , but a good place to undertake remote learning ( queue lots of people trying to return to Hong Kong ). Generally speaking , schools and teachers in Hong Kong have shown great resilience coping with the challenges of teaching remotely . Students and parents too .
Some may argue that Hong Kong schools have ( at times ) been closed unnecessarily but , according to UNICEF , 168 million children globally have had their school completely closed for almost a full year . So we ’ re not alone in facing this challenge . And anyway , that ’ s not the question we ’ re addressing in this article . For this article we are specificially looking at the youngest generation of learners and asking how COVID-19 and online learning has been for them .
It ’ s hard to hold the attention of a kindergarten-aged child at the best of times . They aren ’ t going to log themselves into an online lesson and focus for two hours of remote learning ( watching annoying cartoons for two hours , however , is apparently not a problem …).
Willow Hewitt , who works for i-Learner Education Centre , a company that provides supplementary pedagogical support using small-group tutorials , explains , “ Kindergarten parents were more resistant than those with older children so we offered a few alternatives ,
Spring 2021 17