How to Address the Education Crisis Following a Pandemic

Our System Has To Change

The global education crisis has been looming for some time now, and with the recent pandemic it has become even more apparent. In order to avert a future global education crisis, organizations and individuals have been working hard to come up with new trends and solutions.

As the world moves on from the pandemic, it is important to consider how we will address the education crisis that has arisen in its wake. Many schools were closed for a long period of time and many parents and guardians were forced to educate their children for the first time. Millions of children around the world missed out on vital educational skills at a time when they needed it most.

And now that students are back in schools, many are having to play catch up on the skills that students missed. However now, some students are having a hard time transitioning back into the traditional school setting. In schools administrators and teachers are finding that student conflict is on a rise and much of the conflict stems from social media. In order to address the missing skills and the social issues that students are facing, we need to embrace some new ways of thinking in order to achieve a high quality education for all children.

Schools should utilize new learning strategies such as blended learning or personalized learning.

Blended learning is a strategy in which a student learns from a combination of both the teacher's instruction along with self-directed activities. This can be made possible with most schools having one to one devices, where each student has their own computer or tablet in the classroom. Teachers can teach concepts and then use computer programs to provide the re-teaching or acceleration that each student needs based upon their mastery of the concept. This individual instruction utilizing computer software is an example personalized learning if it is used without the instruction of a teacher.

Schools must make social emotional learning learning a priority in a way that can be implemented and then evaluated for effectiveness in a systemic way.

Our students need the time to focus on their emotions and how to best address them. So often our students argue on social media sites without their parents and guardians being aware and then come to school to continue the argument where it usually becomes physical. This was a problem before the pandemic however after the pandemic it is much more of an issue because our students have less patience for emotions and want to react instead of talk about an issue.

Schools must make learning fun.

I know that this is a cliche’ that many may have heard before however it is true. Students need a reason to want to learn and considering that our children aren’t always thinking about the future implications of their education, what they are learning must be fun or interesting in order to keep them engaged. One of the best ways that I have seen to keep students engaged is to make the learning into a game. What child doesn’t enjoy games? When a teacher turns the learning into a game the competition takes over and the students usually want to win so they do their best to learn the information.

The global education crisis is a very real and pressing issue. If we do not take steps to avert it, we will see a decline in the quality of education around the world. This could have far-reaching consequences for our economy, society, and security. We need to invest in education now more than ever, and support organizations that are working to make a difference.