In her 2018 memoir Educated, Cambridge alumna Tara Westover describes, in haunting detail, growing up without being able to attend school until she was 17 years old. Dr Westover grew up in rural Idaho in the US with a father who was not only anti-establishment, but radically opposed to public education, government, hospitals, even law enforcement. She wanted more and was able to tutor herself to pass a standardized college admission test at the age of 17. After earning a BA in history, she secured a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to do a master’s degree. She was then a visiting fellow at Harvard before returning to Cambridge to read for her doctorate also in history.
Throughout her life, Dr Westover faced tremendous adversity which she managed to overcome. Educated is an example of what can be accomplished with determination. However, what makes her story inspirational is that Dr Westover is among those who are the exception rather than the rule. The typical person needs formal education or some form of structured homeschooling in order to avoid illiteracy. But sometimes even having accessed one or the other for the required period, children grow into adults who are unable to read, write and do basic math.
As the world observed International Literacy Day on Tuesday, UNESCO, while justifiably proud of the progress made over the last 53 years, cautioned that challenges remain and that these were being adversely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The UN organisation, which advocates for education, culture and peace, posited that the world’s literacy rate had increased from 69% in 1976 to 86% in 2016 and that while progress had been made in every part of the world, “every country… has some portion of its population that is not yet literate.” This remains a concern.
When the lockdowns in response to Covid-19 literally closed the doors of conventional learning institutions worldwide, the fragility of education systems was exposed. Many schools, even some in developed countries found their capacity to deliver greatly diminished. Some were able to immediately switch completely to digital learning resources, as they were already engaged in this to some degree, but still were not in a position to reach every student. The shift to online and distance learning took weeks, months and in some places has not yet fully become a reality.
Aside from the lack of, or poor infrastructure in some countries, Guyana included, there was and still is also a human problem. Online and distance education do not employ the same pedagogy as, for example, rote learning or parroting, which while frowned upon by modern educators is still prevalent. Much was therefore required of teachers, some of whom were not themselves equipped to deliver. And though there have been many heartwarming stories about teachers who went and are continuing to go the extra mile, some have not left the starting gate, which is understandable in instances where the barrier is ignorance, but unforgivable where it is laziness or lack of care as it is in a few cases.
Covid-19 also served to vividly delineate the strata in education at all levels. The fourth of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, meant to be achieved by 2030, aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” Public schools, which in most countries only cover primary and secondary education, should set the foundation for that. But this is not the case.
In the wake of school closures, primary and secondary school students from privileged backgrounds were immediately able to access alternative forms of learning. They had access to the necessary tools: computers, internet, or television, as the case may be. Children not necessarily privileged, but whose parents appreciate the value of education also did not suffer too much. Their parents did everything possible, including becoming tutors themselves, to minimise any lessening of their budding academic prowess. Vulnerable children, those born to illiterate or uncaring parents, fared the worst. Those with learning disabilities or who lack the sort of resilience and determination to engage demonstrated in the memoir referred to above, face the kind of life-altering setback that could be damaging in the long term, not only to them, but the society at large. The methods used to measure literacy often do not take into account the rise in the semiliterate and the concomitant dumbing down of society, yet the effects are everywhere.
In the face of this, the case is well made for governments to address alternative means of delivering education in a way that encompasses all students and with some level of permanency. While currently the preponderance of digital and distance education is among the responses to Covid-19, it should also be considered as a means of curbing overcrowding in schools, for example, as well as allowing the delivery of quality education to children wherever they are, even after schools are able to fully reopen. One of the lessons of this pandemic is that acting after the fact, even with the best of intentions, can be the worst thing to do.
