Distance education in “official”: “not the case”

The first week of distance education in the public sector did not pass peacefully. Everyone agrees that the situation is exceptional and requires an exceptional effort, provided that the decision makers in the Ministry of Education are not in one valley, and the teachers are in another valley, abandoned to “pluck the thorns with their hands”, according to their sources.

The “firm” switch to full remote learning during the blanket lockout period, November 11-30, did not take into account that a teacher might have to give a lesson from their balcony while trying to “catch” a signal from Internet cafe closed next door, or That a student of Bab al-Tabbaneh apologized to the teacher for sending him his homework late because he was waiting for his father to return from work to use his phone, and that the picture of the homework was “dark” due to the power cut, or that only 5 of the 20 students in the class were able to follow the lesson through the online platform, while the rest do not follow up, or follow up, through the traditional WhatsApp media , email and others, without direct interaction with teachers.
A full year has passed since the Corona pandemic began, with no insight from the ministry. Sources confirm that the educational platform is not available, and even if a tool like “Microsoft Teams” is available, teachers have not been trained in it, and a large part of them are still not good at using it, and officials They have been waiting for months for donations from donors to deliver laptops to teachers who use their own computer and phone possessions. To perform public functions, unless the teacher can no longer purchase any device or repair it on his own in the event of an emergency breakdown.
All this in the midst of the absence of union bodies that dissolved into political power and abandoned teachers in these exceptional circumstances. As for those who are in the place of decision-making, they do not feel, according to teacher sources, “what we are suffering on the ground. So we fell in love with ambiguous and interpretable decisions and generalizations. “The recent Resolution 536 regarding the regulation of distance learning during the general lockdown period, for example, tied the teachers and disrupted their educational effectiveness. As a minister’s decision of Education, Tariq Al-Majzoub, did not specify the duration of the class for distance education, while the teacher is obliged to hold in front of the screen about 7 classes to give a complete program without interruptions, unlike face-to-face education where there are opportunities between classes Regarding the reduction of the study plans decided by the Educational Center, it has not yet been made effective.
There was also confusion about what the minister’s decision required regarding the preparation of weekly reports on the totality of the work carried out with the titles of the lessons and activities carried out, and the number of hours carried out in each subject and in each class. Although the decision is clear in terms of assigning this task to principals, coordinators and supervisors, some of these have “diverted” the process to teachers and assigned administrative burdens that have nothing to do with them, in addition to their educational tasks. This is done despite the fact that the Directorate of Secondary Education states that completing the weekly forms and organizing them is the sole responsibility of the principal or coordinator.

A large number of teachers still do not know how to use the educational platform

Regarding the lack of determination of the class in distance education, the deputy director of Secondary Education Khaled Fayed explained that the opinion of the management established that the class should be approximately 40 minutes, and “it is an acceptable period of time for education from distance”. Regarding the presence on the educational platform for seven classes, “it is not mandatory, since the teacher can be present simultaneously with the students in a class and in another session he communicates with them via WhatsApp, email, or any other means. (sending a video to do exercises) ”, recognizing that it is not mandatory The teacher has a specific means of communication or a specific platform, with the need to accommodate some special cases (ignorance of technology, aging …) .
The entrance of the educational inspection into the virtual surveillance line surprised the teachers. How can the teacher be left alone in the battle of distance learning and asked to hold the inspection accountable? The inspection sources were surprised by the filming of the search as a “scarecrow”, while the new reality “demands that we exercise our supervisory function stipulated in the laws and regulations of inspection in distance education, as well as in the public education”. However, we will not charge any teacher who exceeds their capacity ”.
In the context, the General Inspectorate of Education clarified, in a statement, that it will not bear additional burdens on school officials and that it only requested copies of the reports that are required of them by virtue of Resolution No. 536 of the Ministry of Education.

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