An education expert has emphasized that it is still too soon to fully assess the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the education sector
Thursday, March 27, marked five years since President Cyril Ramaphosa imposed a strict nationwide lockdown in 2020 to curb the spread of COVID-19, a virus that claimed thousands of lives worldwide.
Speaking on Ramadan AM on Friday, Barry Firth, a faculty member in the Faculty of Education at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), stated that five years is not enough time to comprehensively evaluate how students, teachers, and parents have been affected by the lockdown.
“We are not yet equipped to fully understand the lockdown’s effects on the education sector. Five years is a drop in the ocean when you consider how education has evolved. There are many factors to take into account, from educators transitioning between in-person and virtual teaching to a shifting learner population with diverse needs. Teachers are leaving the system, while new ones are entering. Despite ongoing efforts, education remains a system that largely maintains and reproduces inequality, even with various interventions,” he said.
Listen to the full interview below:
