Poor Academic Performance in 2020 blamed on the COVID-19 Pandemic

Poor Academic Performance of Students in 2020

It was announced late last year that many students in Grade 12, 10 and 8 may have been selected to secure a space in High School, Secondary School and Tertiary Institutions due to poor academic performance. The Secretary for the Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, Fr Yan Czuba informed that out of 27,143 grade 12 students who applied to tertiary institutions, only 9371 met the requirements of tertiary institutions. This means that more than sixty percent of Grade 12 students have missed out on a placing in tertiary institutions. The COVID 19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns have been blamed as the main causes of this poor academic performance. While this may be true, COVID 19 is directly to blame for this poor performance but it’s the school systems and the support systems that we have that are not built in a way that would enable learning to continue when schools closed.

A Teacher- Classroom Learning Environment

The school system in PNG and in most countries around the region and the world have been set up in a way that students are required to be in the classroom and have active engagement with a teacher in order to learn. Children are not being taught in an early age the practice of learning independently without a supervisor. When the pandemic came and schools shut down students were required to continue their lessons from home learning independently was something that most students did not know how to do. Most times we only do homework because we had to go to school the next day and the teacher was going to mark our work and we did not want to look bad. When you don’t have to go to school the next day or your work will not be marked most students are less likely to even complete reading the lessons that have been provided to them.

Weak Support Systems and Inconducive Learning Environment at Home

Some students actually have to be in a classroom or in a facility at school in order to do their work because they do not have the same opportunity to do so at home. Taking into consideration a city like Port Moresby where housing is an issue, most people live in crammed spaces with many other people and do not have the space to actually do their work at home. For outside centers factors like having no electricity to be able to have light and be able to study at night can affect one’s learning.

Weak support systems also mean that when children stay at home they are expected to help with household chores and they are not given the space during the day to be able to do their work. If they want to work at night there may be no electricity and no lights to enable them to study.

All these factors which arose because of the lockdown measures and the fact that not all homes are conducive study spaces for students and not all families are supportive of their children may have contributed to this poor performance of students.

Challenges with Technology and Infrastructure

Most schools in Papua New Guinea are not equipped to conduct distance learning. Schools cannot cater for printing materials for the students to take home and parents cannot afford to buy resource books for their children. These very basic challenges show that we cannot even consider online classes for our public secondary schools and primary schools. There are a few schools that are trying to take their classes online but these are the schools in the city.

Although the Department of Education has directed all schools to provide work for students to do at home that would be difficult as schools will not be able to print the materials let along scan and email.

That being said, most schools just sent the students home when the Government imposed a lockdown. Later when the schools reopened they then had to deal with all the backlog of assignments and work. Students learn at different paces and to have too much crammed into a short period of time and that coupled with issues like overloaded classrooms it is no surprise that most students did not do well.

The Next Steps

So far we have identified three factors that may have contributed to this poor academic performance by students. The pandemic may have actually helped us identify gaps in our education system that need to be strengthened. The curriculum could be revisited to see if students could be taught at an early age to adapt to a learning environment that is not dependent on the physical presence of a teacher to enable learning. They should rather be able to handle non-contact periods and still be able to perform at a satisfactory level. This will later in life prove useful as people will be able to work independently, be creative and innovative and not rely on constant supervision in order to perform.

Parents should also be encouraged to take an active participation in their children’s learning rather than just observers. Having study spaces like community halls or libraries in communities that young people can actually access to do their work should be an initiative taken by the local or district governments. This can be done in partnership with existing community groups or churches.

E-learning may not be optional to be rolled out nationwide but could be beneficial for the schools in the city and urban areas. Alternate classes could be held such as having some grades go to school on certain days and other on other days. This will cut down on the number of students going to school and social distancing could be observed.

If there is anything that we have learnt from this pandemic and its impact on academic performance is that it’s time to get creative in our teaching and learning methods. This is not the last we have seen of such a pandemic and we may have to live like this. We instead need to adapt to the new normal and start thinking of ways to continue enriching the learning process and ensuring that students continue to excel in their education despite the challenges.