WHEN the government shut down non-essential businesses to curb Covid-19 transmission more than a year ago, schools were not spared, too.

Lessons were moved online and students’ homes repurposed to be temporary classrooms, but these measures also exposed society to inequalities in education.

Parents flocked to buy affordable digital devices, or internet service providers to sign up for or extend access just so that their children will not be left out by the education system. To many other parents, this simply may not be an option that they can even afford to consider.

Inequalities in education may be an existing issue long known to educators and experts, they, however, are hardly the subject of public discourses domestically.

Even when the story of Veveonah Mosibin became an international sensation last year, the initial response from a deputy minister was dismissive and condescending, brushing the issue aside without knowing the facts. When the government eventually acknowledged the problem, its proposed solution seems to suggest that inequalities faced by our education system stems from digital divides alone, when the roots of the problem go beyond mere regional technology advancement.

Evidently, even before Covid-19 schools are not level playing fields for everyone. Years of studies have shown that socio-economic background from which the students come is one of the main factor to learning gaps, and is a strong predictor of students’ performance.

In 2018, PISA reported an average score difference of 89 points in reading between the advantaged and disadvantaged groups in Malaysia, and attributes 17% of the variation in students’ performance in mathematics and science to the same factor.

Meanwhile, poverty remains one of the main reasons why students drop out of schools, with native communities among the most affected. As learning turns digital, the decrease in accessibility will only exacerbate the problem further.

Loss of learning opportunities can have long-lasting consequences. If the reduction of lesson hours is not coupled with readjustment of learning contents across school curricula, it will inevitably create tensions and competing demands which force students to somehow attain loads of subject matter with not much time for deep and meaningful learning.

Without achieving good understanding of what they have learned, they could have fallen farther behind if teachers teach to the curriculum in the new grade, widening the gaps between the advantaged and disadvantaged groups. It is important that subject matter experts find ways to streamline learning contents to their cores so that we allow our students the chance and the required time to learn properly.

As the impact due to the loss of learning becomes more significant, competencies-based learning, such as collecting, analysing and organising information, problem-solving, planning and decision making, becomes relevant and desirable.

As this kind of learning is not bound to a specific discipline, it allows the schools to make full use of the resources from the surrounding community and physical environment accessible to the students from different regions. Instead of just learning knowledge, students learn how to carry out difficult tasks while developing competencies. Successful acquisition of these skills can have life-long positive impact in whatever endeavour they decide to take on in future.

In addition, through careful selection of learning tasks relevant to the students’ individual experience and competencies, it is possible to promote interests and motivate students to engage actively and meaningfully, which is crucial for keeping disadvantaged students in schools. Redefining the balance between knowledge and competency may serve student’s needs better.

Despite Covid-19 and policies that control and mitigate it affecting every person, its impacts manifested unequally. Students do not experience and react to the effects of the pandemic in the same way.

Those who come from poorer families are more vulnerable to its adverse effects than those from well to do families. They are more likely to be susceptible to the disease due to poorer nutrition, and more likely to face financial difficulties such as losing their household income and with little or no savings to get by. They are facing higher risks of domestic violence.

Therefore, knowledge on how to assess and reduce risks of infection, ability to identify and cope with mental stress, to remain hopeful and resilient, and to be able to protect oneself from domestic violence or assaults become more crucial than ever.

Rethinking curricular contents and realign educational objectives will also allow the education system the space to accommodate the teaching of these potentially life-saving skills in our school curricula. After all, the goal of education should not be restricted to acquiring academic knowledge alone.

Our students deserve the opportunity to learn things and build characters which they would need for handling volatile and uncertain challenges, such as Covid-19, that await. The curriculum experts and the society as a whole need to reflect on and reprioritise the objectives of our education.

Looking at the situation of Covid-19 globally, it is unlikely that issues caused by Covid-19 can be resolved in a period of months. For those who are affected most adversely, its impact may continue years after the crisis is over.

Rapid and apt responses from our education system and leaders may mitigate adverse effects on the disadvantaged students. As such, Covid-19 is essentially a stress test of the capacities of the ministry of education and our schools to deal with inequalities in our education.

Challenges facing disadvantaged students are more than the problem of digital divides and internet service coverage. 

It is high time that the government start to tackle the issue of inequalities head on, by identifying those who are adversely affected by the pandemic and the closure of schools, assessing the impacts caused by government’s policies, by paying attention to what they have to say and their general well-being, by taking a collaborative and decentralised approach, and by making it possible for people to communicate with and give feedback to the government and the schools.

More importantly, the government has to lead the way to readjust expectations on students learning and reprioritise educational goals to address the students’ current and post-Covid needs. Failing to do so is unfair and may widen the learning gaps. – March 29, 2021.

* Chan Yit Fei is a founding member of Agora Society. He is a cellist and educator by profession, and a biotechnologist by training. He writes to learn and to think, and most importantly, to force himself to finish reading books that would otherwise not see much of the light of day.