Education in the Time of Corona
Education in the Time of Corona
(with apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
I have spent a considerable amount of time over the last five weeks speaking with colleagues in education discussing the current situation, notwithstanding the constant moving of goalposts, and the plan for the future, with the same caveat. This blog summarises these conversations and looks at the bigger topics of discussion. I will start by making no apologies for the focus of this being on English and maths, as that is my area of interest, but these conversations also touched on other areas too. In terms of who I have engaged with and how, the key word here is varied. A variety of colleagues in a variety of roles (from practitioner to educational leader, from administrative staff to HoDs and Curriculum Leads) with a variety of means of communication (I have become an expert at talking with and listening to people, which for those that know me is a key personal development ticked off – just need to ensure I do this face to face when the time comes).
So, where to start? The key thing I have taken away from all the conversations are how concerned people are. Everyday things are no longer taken for granted, the daily interaction with their colleagues and their learners is now seen for how important it truly is. When asking for top tips for working with English and maths learners, many practitioners wrote back saying, listen to your learners, spend time discussing what is happening at home. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t issues. Most providers were not set up for distance learning and they have had to learn quickly. Online message boards are filled with questions on how to do this, how to do that. I have even dusted off my teaching hat and produced some online Functional Skills lessons to engage learners. However, there is still the issue with engagement. English and maths learners are notoriously difficult to engage at times (improving attendance in post 16 English and maths was always at the forefront of college leaders’ minds). One concerned CEO asked what I had heard about engagement across providers with online learning portals as they were worried that their above 50% engagement was an issue. It is not. For some providers that is still a dream scenario with practitioners reporting that a small minority of learners are blocking phone numbers and email addresses. The key here is to keep trying. As one headmaster told me, when learners are bored enough, they will come back to learning.
For Functional Skills, we are now moving towards estimation as the solution to the lack of testing opportunities currently. Which raises questions for providers. So many questions, and so little time to engage with them. At the time of writing this the solution has not been made public, so I will leave that to one side and focus on what providers are saying. For some they are worried about the approach in general, feeling it is open to bad practice. My view on that is there need to be some sort of honour system in place here, most providers understand the repercussions of learners achieving qualifications they did not deserve. Every practitioner has a story of learner that has progressed and then struggles to achieve at a higher level, and most practitioners know they will have those learners back in September. In addition, there will be checks and balances in place to weed out unscrupulous activities.
In terms of evidence, centres are worried about how they will collate this. This is not about not having the evidence, though some are concerned about that, it is more about having the capability to provide it. Post 16 providers run all levels of qualifications from GSCE resits to BTECs to Functional Skills. That is a lot of qualifications and a lot of evidence. Awarding Organisations are doing what they can to minimise this. However, centres are concerned that they have furloughed staff and had to let agency staff go because of the situation and getting the evidence itself may be difficult. I think here, the positive is that your Awarding Organisation will be aware of this and will be supportive.
Even with estimation as the agreed course of action, centres are still looking at testing. Estimation will still mean learners failing, so centres want testing back up and running as soon as possible for those learners that still need to achieve. The scale will all depend on how quickly centres come out of lockdown, with FE centres hoping for a return in September and Private Training Providers sooner. Online Proctoring may well be a solution here if the lockdown continues into August.
The final discussion point comes down to money and funding. From extending the end date for legacy Functional Skills certification and testing to ending access to gateway requirements, almost all providers are concerned about money and funding. A CEO of a large training provider confided that if this continues for much longer, many training providers might have to close as the achievement funding will dry up. A sentiment that is echoed across the sector. More needs to be done to support Post 16 education in these very trying times.