Online Home Schooling: Are Parents Ready? Lessons from the Corona Virus Disease Induced Lock Down
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Date
2020-09
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Abstract
The outbreak of the corona virus disease (COVID-19) in China
around December 2019 led to the premature closure of schools
globally. This was done to ensure reduced transmission of the
disease. Due to the indefinite level two lockdown in Zimbabwe,
schools remain closed. This has led to online home schooling,
where schools send work to parents who conduct and monitor the
lessons on their behalf. This study sought to find out the
experiences and readiness of parents in Bulawayo Metropolitan
Province, Zimbabwe, who were expected to conduct lessons
online. The study which is situated in the interpretive paradigm
and qualitative approach collected data from ten purposively
selected parents as key informants. Qualitative data was
collected using emailed open-ended questionnaires in compliance
with COVID-19 regulations. Results revealed that parents found it
difficult to conduct online lessons due to costly data, lack of
expert knowledge and teaching pedagogy, unclear instructions
from teachers, unavailable or shared gadgets at home and poor
internet connectivity. Schools were also said to be piling up work,
disregarding parents’ other responsibilities. Conclusions drawn
were that most of the parents were not ready for online home
schooling although they perceived the exercise to be beneficial.
Recommendations were that schools should conduct training
sessions for staff and parents, have formal feedback sessions and
exercise flexibility for execution and submission of work and
continue online lessons post COVID-19. Further research could be
conducted to find out learners’ perceptions of online home
schooling.
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Nani, G.V. & Sibanda, L. (2020). Online Home Schooling: Are Parents Ready? Lessons from the Corona Virus Disease Induced Lock Down Randwick International of Education and Linguistics Science (RIELS) Journal v.1(2):140-151.