With Covid-19 community cases spiking and clusters involving students, schools have announced the move to home-based learning (HBL) starting from 19 May.
In light of this, former Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Kuik Shiao-Yin urged teachers to lessen the workload during HBL in a Facebook post.
Instead, she asked teachers to check in on students’ mental health and teach kindness.
After all, Ms Kuik says, this is a great opportunity for real-life integrated Character and Citizenship Education (CCE).
In an open letter to primary school teachers and principals via a Facebook post, Ms Kuik shares the stresses of parents as they work from home (WFH) and juggle kids who are doing HBL, especially those with primary school kids.
From managing new technology to supervising their child’s work, doing their own jobs and dealing with marital strains in a small work environment, the stressors can be overwhelming.
So, she urges primary school teachers and principals to help parents by re-looking at students’ workload.
Ms Kuik believes that homework and projects that require a lot of adult supervision can be reduced for the sake of parents.
Homework and exams are important, but family well-being should take priority.
And the best way to achieve this is by eradicating unnecessary homework whenever possible.
Teachers should communicate with parents and kids as allies through a difficult time and not as their second supervisor.
Instead of piling on homework, Ms Kuik suggests that teachers can set aside academics to check in on students and their families.
There are important lessons to glean from this pandemic. Teachers in more privileged schools can get students to see that there are parents undergoing financial crises.
Beyond that, many parents are also experiencing emotional, psychological, and marital stress.
After all, this problem extends even to households of kids in elite schools.
In such a unique and difficult period, teachers can teach students about kindness and support — for parents and other adults like food delivery riders, hawkers, cleaners, and even teachers themselves.
Mindfulness can also be another lesson seeing that the pandemic is also a mental health crisis.
Students can be taught how to look out for warning signs in friends and loved ones, and learning when they can approach teachers for help.
At the end of the day, HBL amidst a pandemic is a great opportunity to do integrated CCE.
Concluding her post, Ms Kuik sent teachers a word of encouragement by saying that many parents respect them and are cheering them on.
By reducing student’s workload, both parents and teachers can be less stressed together.
You can view the Facebook post in full here.
As everyone braces themselves for another round of HBL and WFH, it can be stressful for individuals and families.
At such a time, cooperation and understanding are all the more important.
After all, only when everyone comes together and plays their part can we get through this pandemic as a society.
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Featured image from Salt & Light and Pathlight School.
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