The Contextualization of Bridging the Learning Gap Caused by Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown in Zimbabwe
Prince Dzingirayi1*, Loreen Musemburi1*
1 Department of Psychology Lecturer, Women’s University in Africa
*Corresponding Author: [email protected], [email protected]
Accepted: 15 September 2021 | Published: 1 October 2021
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Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has punched the education system throughout the world, causing learning institutions to close and learners were caught off guard. The unprecedented closure of schools has created some learning gaps in the curriculum which needs to be bridged.
This study came up with a Post-Crisis Pathway Bridge which had six stages which are: (1).
Behavioral/Classroom diagnostic assessment (2). Identifying the last point of success, (3).
Motivation and flexible conducive environment (4). Accelerated remedial learning (5).
Stakeholder engagement & Online learning (6) Monitoring and Evaluation. The study had noted that behavior matters most to enhance success of learners. This Post-Crisis Pathway Bridge had been informed by the Performance Lag Address Programme (PLAP) on which the learning gap had been caused by the 2008 political violence and serious economic challenges.
The aim of this study was to empower and examine how to bridge the learning gap created during the unprecedented times of COVID-19 lockdown in Zimbabwe. This study is based on secondary research using electronic databases, grey literature, reference harvesting and discourse analysis, with weighted critical balanced viewed on the most suitable way forward.
The study revealed that the Post-Crisis Pathway Bridge is the best intervention strategy which can be used in developing countries such as Zimbabwe to close the learning gap among the learners. Education is a key social investment which needs to be prioritized through funding so as to make sure all resources are available in order to boost the morale of learners and facilitators. The Post Crisis Pathway Bridge is relevant to close the learning gap of learners in primary and secondary schools. This intervention is not feasible to tertiary levels.
Keywords: Covid-19, learning gap, pandemic lockdown
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1. Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened the education system across the globe. The world has been turned upside down due to the emerging of COVID-19. Daily activities such as interaction, communication, work, learning and travel have been affected. The researchers are busy trying to come up with solutions of how to safely reopen schools and businesses, how to commute and travel without transmitting or contracting infection, how to support those most affected by the crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected education throughout the world, causing schools, colleges and universities to close. This literally mean that the educations system has suffered a huge blow. Education is a key investment tool for empowerment, social development and transformation of the individual’s well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic undeniably caught education systems and learners off guard. Therefore, the COVID-19 situation has created some learning gaps in the curriculum which needs to be bridged. These learning gaps has contributed to direct emerging of educational inequities, delay learners’
progress in school, and can pose threats to safety. This article focuses on how motivate and empower players in the teaching-learning situations so as to bridge the learning gap using practical and pragmatic approaches of the current health-education landscape created by COVID-19 lockdown. In this context, information technology (IT) and home-learning provides an ideal platform to bridge both distance and knowledge. This study had been informed by the Performance Lag Address Programme (PLAP) on which the learning gap had been caused by the 2008 political violence and serious economic challenges. These factors had also unintentionally caused school closure for a short period. The COVID-19 school closure has a longer period than the 2008 election violence in Zimbabwe. It is prudent for this research to bring to light the best strategies which can be used in Zimbabwe to bridge the education gap caused by the restrictive measures used to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The pandemic has claimed more than two million lives and the strategies used to control the virus has compromised the psychosocial, economic, and, political wellbeing of individuals.
1.1 Background and literature review
The global COVID-19 pandemic has painfully demonstrated and displayed the most devastating crisis which has affected humanity. There is much to be learnt from this pandemic and to be done in response, now and into the future, at an individual, community, societal and global scale. COVID-19 is a systematic health crisis with deadly implications to livelihoods.
The crisis needs to rewire our cognition because the future is hard to predict. The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened the education system across the globe. The world has been turned upside down due to the emerging of different alarming variant of COVID-19. There more questions than answers to on the origin of the coronavirus, some conspiracy theories are hovering around the globe. In Zimbabwe there is silent resistance on the vaccination programs due to its efficacy and effectiveness. The scientists are working around the clock trying to come up with effective treatment remedy so that the world can return to normal operation.
The COVID-19 is a disease that has been named after “coronavirus disease 2019” (abbreviated
“COVID-19”). SARS-CoV-2, was first discovered in December 2019 around Wuhan, Hubei, China and has accelerated with an unexpected speed to all parts of the world. There are a lot of variant which are still emerging with different waves. As of writing, COVID-19 (SARS-COV- 2) is believed to have infected over 7 million people globally and the updates of the disease is being arrayed daily which could cause panic and fear (World Health Organization, 2020). The entire world was placed on lockdown as a way to mitigate the spread the coronavirus (Dzingirayi, Musiringofa & Maunganidze, 2020). The coronavirus has put everything into a halt such as social restriction and national transport links, market or business transaction, school and organization activities, and all related social and religious gathering. Therefore, school closure has caused students to engage in health risk behaviours and learners had retrogress drastically. Smith, Ostinelli & Cipriani (2020) say that COVID-19 is an on-going pandemic of coronavirus disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome.
The school closures have a detrimental effect upon educational progress, and the closures experienced so far equate to enormous learning losses (Azevedo et al, 2020). Due to measures to contain the pandemic, about 1.2 billion learners are out of school and 73.8% of the world’s school population have been affected by school closures (UNESCO, 2020a). Globally the closure of schools has affected the access, quality and equality of education which other researchers are predicting to have negative economic impacts in future. According to WHO (2020) the abrupt closure of schools led to disruptions of learning modes, access to school related services, parenting style and evaluation crisis within most State education ministries.
The pandemic has caused major inequality within scholars precipitated by limited or non- availability of Information Communication Technology (ICT) gadgets such as smartphones, computer, radio and television and internet services among other in most homes. Learning institutions that may have better resources also faced challenges of facilitating practical- oriented subjects and courses that used to engage learners through laboratory experiments. In most developing countries there are very few institutions that can afford set up and maintain virtual science laboratories where facilitators and learners can simulate experiments together ((Abbey & Hoxley, 2020). In this scenario learning has been poked to theoretical only hence affecting quality of the education.
The abrupt changes of the pandemic require steep-learning. As the world emerges from the lockdown, more collaborative approaches to solving complex problems are needed (Buheji &
Buheji, 2020). The sudden COVID-19 pandemic created a sudden event that created a consequence of broader changes in the modern world. However, this needs new attitudes and behaviours that could shape our life; amongst the top ones are the capacity to learn through problem-solving (Bird, 2020). The novel virus pandemic has brought to the world new situations that we need to live with. The advent of COVID-19 has thrown the world in upheaval.
Indisputably, COVID-19 pandemic has an unprecedented impact on the education system on a global scale. Globally schools and education institutions have shut down face-to-face classes since the education system emerged as vulnerable during the escalating concerns pertaining the spread of COVID-19. It is now clear that learning institutions needs a flexible and resilient approach to bridge the gap caused by prolonged closure of learning institutions.
Subsequently, the recommendations of the study, if implemented, will allow education institutes to create an interactive and enjoyable learning milieu for all learners amidst the nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic. Although lockdowns are effective in enforcing social distancing measures and tracing of COVID-19 patients, they are not good for education and the economy.
1.2 Global education context
The education system was among the hardest-hit sectors worldwide (Dhawan, 2020; Gurukkal, 2020; Johnson et al., 2020). According to Gurukkal (2020, p. 1), the devastating COVID-19 will have grave economic and social consequences, with higher education being featured,
"turning the world into another techno-economic culture". Education plays a role in changing patterns of inequality and is one of the major drivers of intergenerational social and income mobility (Causa and Chapuis, 2009). Governments around the world have closed all face to face educational institutions in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 and to minimize health risks for students, teachers and ancillary staff. Globally, the nationwide closures affect approximately 155 million children in pre-primary education, 691 million primary school pupils, 537 million secondary school pupils, and 191 million students in tertiary education (UNESCO, 2020b). Globally, a school shutdown could generate learning losses that have a present value of more than $10 trillion (World Bank, 2020). Therefore, lake of drastic remedial action of bridging the learning gap the world could face a substantial academic setback.
COVID-19 has caused an unprecedented disruption in the learning fraternity. The novel virus has created stress on our educational systems from primary to higher education settings.
Learning institutions were forced to shift from traditional learning style to unprepared online learning from the comforts of their homes. During crises and conflicts, closures of learning institutions and non-formal programs can exacerbate the vulnerability of learners and their families and have a detrimental impact on learners’ wellbeing. Literature highlights certain deficiencies such as the weakness of online teaching infrastructure, the inexperience of
teachers, the information gap, the complex environment at home, and so forth (Murgatrotd, 2020).
COVID-19 is causing major vulnerabilities such as high unemployment, school dropouts, economic meltdown, possible social unrest triggered by poverty and longstanding issues aired by civic and political environment. The pandemic has created enormous disruption to lives and livelihoods as well as social and economic systems worldwide.
1.3 An overview of the Zimbabwean education system
The COVID-19 pandemic presents unique challenges for Zimbabwe’s already fragile education system. The education system in Zimbabwe has a structure of a nine (9) year of primary education, six (6) years of secondary education (divided into 4 years of lower secondary and 2 years of upper secondary school), and three (3) to five (5) years of post- secondary education. The education in Zimbabwe is guided by the education blueprint called the curriculum. The curriculum is a national policy ensures quality education and equipped the learners with necessary skills for changing the world today and tomorrow. In implementing the curriculum Makhurane & Nyoni (2017) point that the Zimbabwe curriculum is organized in three levels which are: Infant school (ECD, Grades 1 and 2); Junior school (Grades 3-7) and Secondary school (forms 1-6). The learning approach has been divided as either formal or non- formal and for tertiary students are grouped as either traditional students or non- traditional students. Students have a wide range of options between private and public education institutions depending on their aptitude, ambitions and resources. The decision to reopen schools should also be data-driven as guided by the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leon and Liberia during 2015-2016. In the case of COVID-19, formal and non-formal institutions are being challenged to modify not only learning calendars, curricula, and lesson plans, but also the modalities through which teaching and learning take place. COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call for improving Africa’s still weak health structures and related institutional capacity, such as education, infrastructure or national security. Covid-19 crisis has pointed out the weakness of the educational. In Zimbabwe the pandemic has emerged during the crucial period when the country was introducing the updated curriculum with new learning areas such as the continuous assessment learning activities (CALA). The national curriculum was started to implement in 2017 which focused to introduce new learning areas such as coding and robotics in ECD. The pandemic had struck during the most crucial period of transition.
According to Saleh et al (2020) the root cause for the widening gap include inadequate governmental funding for health care. This disparity is compounded by a lack of health education and awareness in the general population, for whom food, clean water, and safe habitat are daily existential unmet needs. According to Shizha &Kariwo (2011) Zimbabwe suffers brain drain as experienced education facilitators prefer to go for greener pastures where their sills can be valued. In Zimbabwe, teachers have been de-professionalised by the socio- economic and political status of the country for years and many professional educators withdrew their services and migrate to neighbouring countries in search for better living conditions. The coming of the COVID-19 was a big blow to the education system in Zimbabwe as teachers are important pillars on bridging the gap in the child’ education, yet morally they are not motivated participants but disgruntled civil servants. However, a careful approach is needed for the country to bridge the widening gap acerbated by COVID-19 variants.
1.4 Aim of the study
This study intends to empower and examine how to bridge the learning gap created during the unprecedented times of COVID-19 lockdown in Zimbabwe.
1.5 Justification
This research is so noble to be used by all stakeholders within the education system that is the learners, facilitators, parents/ guardians, civic organizations and significant others in the community.
1.6 Methodology
The approach to methodological enquiry for this study is based on secondary research using electronic databases, grey literature, reference harvesting and discourse analysis, with weighted critical balanced viewed on the most suitable way forward. In this vein, the research is focused on the current state of the country’s education in comparison to recent updates in the world of electronic/virtual learning and home learning.
1.7 The mode of school environment.
The COVID-19 lockdowns have given Zimbabwe schools a new look and appreciation of their children’s schooling, and how hard teaching and learning can be effectively done.The experts within the ministry of education needs to closely assess the learning needs of their learners and teachers when they return to school. The governments should promote high-priority initiatives through funding for schools to take up so as to accommodate the learners in a less covid-19 risk environment.
1.8 The Post-Crisis Pathway Bridge in Zimbabwe.
The Post-crisis pathway bridge was designed as the intervention strategy to be used in Zimbabwe to bridge the learning gap caused by the closure of schools as a way to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The framework is called Post- Crisis Pathway Bridge is proposed to bring the solution and improves the performance of learners. The Post-crisis Pathway Bridge has six key stages which are (1). Behavioral/Classroom diagnostic assessment (2). Identifying the last point of success, (3). Motivation and flexible conducive environment (4). Accelerated remedial learning (5). Stakeholder engagement & Online learning (6) Monitoring and Evaluation. These stages are a drive towards attainment of positive results and improving the performance of learners who had retrogressed due to unprecedented school closure. Such an initiative is a way of bridging the learning vacuum caused by COVID-19 schools closure.
Positive result
Behavioral /classroom diagnostic assessment
Identify Last point of
success
Accelerated remedial learning
Stakeholder engagement &
Online learning
Evaluation &
monitoring Motivation &flexible
conducive environment
The Post-Crisis Pathway Bridge (Prince & Loreen, 2021)
• A diagnostic assessment identifies a range of strengths and weaknesses in the child.
The strengths can be used as a specific remedial intervention.
• Identifying the last point of success for learners using the Curriculum based tests
• Motivation and flexible conducive environment for learners and teacher/facilitators
• Stakeholder engagement includes the parents, significant others in the community, civic organizations
• Online learning is a technological approach used by facilitators, learners and partners
• Evaluation and monitoring to be done by the teachers and parents
1.9 Bridging the achievement gap using the Post–Crisis Pathway Bridge
In order to effectively close the disruption caused by closure of schools in a way to control the spread of the novel coronavirus the strategies should be in three-tier which is government-led, school-based, and social-service based. The strategies should effectively support the teacher and the learner, effective communication in the learning sphere, conducive learning environment, effective flexible learning methods, and close collaboration between the government and the partners. The government should priorities the re-opening of schools after the reaction to the covid-19 pandemic. Schools should be provided with support to ensure effective teaching and learning. UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank & WFP (2020) point that educational facilitators must be engaged through guidance and supported with materials on effectively addressing learning gaps. The prolonged closure of schools had created a serious learning gap amongst the learners. Schools should be given a ‘catch-up’ loading guidelines to close the learning gap caused by the prolonged covid-19 lockdown. The catch-up initiatives should have high impact, be quick to implement, have a track record of successful implementation, and should help stimulate the teaching-learning environment. In other words the school should be ready for the child in many ways. The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education should adjust its policy, its philosophy and mission while taking into account the impact of COVID-19 had on the education system. Therefore, there is need to scale-down the teacher-pupil ratio because the bridging gap programme is entirely child centered which focused on the individual learning needs of each child to achieve hence effective teaching and learning. This means there is need to have massive recruitment of teachers so that no learner is left out. Most learners had retrogressed drastically. The so called online and home learning had more disadvantages than the advantages. There is need for the government to conduct trials of ‘targeted teaching and learning’ so as to give extra support to the learners on a smaller scale.
Evaluating what works should inform longer-term efforts to close the bigger existing equity gap between disadvantaged students and the rest. The facilitators will have their hands full as schools re-open, and will need extra support to ensure disadvantaged students get the attention they need. The government should fund the catch-up programs as well as to motivate the teachers with start-up projects in order to boost their work spirit. The education system should boost confidence, knowledge and ability of every individual. The learning gap caused by unplanned closure of learning institutions should decouple learner from social, economic and cultural status. This will enhance the mastering of transversal skills of being critical thinkers, entrepreneurship and creative.
1.10 Behavioral Diagnostic assessments
Learning is an act of acquiring information through a desired behavior. The behavior of learners matters most in bridging the gap caused by the unprecedented school closure due to spread of coronavirus. It is the role of departments such as the school psychological services to develop
a diagnostic tool of assessing the strength and weakness of learners after a long school break caused by COVI-19. The long holiday caused by the covid-19 lockdown had forced learners to develop unwilling behaviours towards learning. Some had ventured into drugs and substance abuse, others are addicted to social media. Therefore, the starting point to close the learning vacuum caused by the closure of schools is to diagnose the learners’ current performance using different psychological tests and observation tools. A diagnostic aassessment tool identifies a range of strengths and weakness in the child and suggest specific learning interventions. Note worth mentioning is that these classrooms diagnostic assessment are not direct measures of academic outcome and should never be used for accountability purposes alone. Research had indicated that the prolonged school closure had destroyed the zeal and hope for learners to return back on the desk. There is need to instil a spirit of the “another change” to learners.
Smolleck &Duffy (2017) argue that young children are at risk of behavioural disorders. These behavioural challenges affect the child’s academic ability, social and emotional development both in and out of school. This was supported by Martens & Andreen, (2013) student misbehaviour affects instruction, the learning environment and the school climate for all learners. This indicates that behavioural of learners have a strong bearing on the child and the entire educational environment. The internal and external factors may cause children’s behaviours. For example the school or home environment can precipitate the behaviour of children. This means prolonged home environment can led to anti-social behaviour. Lack of friendships can certainly result in anger and frustration, these negative emotions can have a variety of other origins (Smolleck &Duffy, 2017). A prolonged child’s life outside of the school environment can lead to negative behaviors. Home life can have an enormous impact on student behavior due to the potential imbalance between the expectations of school and home. This ultimately affect the performance of learners. Therefore, it is important to assess behavior of children as the initial strategy of bridging the learning gap caused by covid-19 lockdown.
1.11 Identifying last point of success
In an effort to close the learning gap the facilitators should identify the last point of success. A facilitator initiated assessment tool should be used to identify the last point of success. When the facilitator is equipped with each learner’s level then a learning program should be designed.
Identifying the class point of success is an element of personalizing learning. Individual teaching strategy helps the learners to quickly grasp the concepts hence improving their performance.
1.12 Motivation
Motivation is the core strategy that can be used to assist the learners to work hard so as to bridge the learning gap. The motivational approach should be directed towards the learners and the facilitators. The teaching-learning environment should be so conducive for the participants to deliver their work earnestly. Teachers must address individual student learning needs through the availability of learning resources. Some learners are motivated by physical and moral activities such as sporting. Therefore, there is need to reintroduce the sporting environment on the school timetable. Core-curricular activities are noble as they tape in the inborn talents of learners. For an instance we do have notable individuals who are surviving from core-curricula activities such as athletes. The strength of teacher participation in closing the learning gap is centred on motivation aspiration. The working conditions and the remuneration of teachers is the key towards success. This means the government needs to prioritise the remuneration of teachers so as to shape the future of learners. In Zimbabwe teachers are rated as the lowest paid civil servants. In order to have a bright future there is need to invest in education. An act of commitment should be noted by the government through devoting the financial resources needed to get the job done. The government should assign
responsibilities and resources, setting clear timelines in a much flexible way. Flexible learning require learners to be more responsible of their own academic work with a more self-regulatory and set their own achievement goals. The timing and delivery channel of assessment can also be flexible. Flexible learning can enhance tracing the ability of learners and the application of an effective analysis.
1.13 Creating flexible conducive leaning environment
Effective learning can only take place in a more relaxed, nurturing atmosphere. There needs to ppromote the dual freedom for learners and teachers this enables the child to develop the concept of mutual acceptance and respect. Within such an environment the child will experience a feeling of personal security and worth. A child who feels safe and secure will be able to develop a positive self-image and begin to feel good about him/herself. On the other hand the teacher should be seen as the involved facilitator of learning. Her function is to structure the learning material in such a way that it captures and holds the interest and attention of each child, making learning a pleasurable and lasting experience. The child should be encouraged to participate in a variety of “hand-on” learning activities which lend themselves to interaction and exploitation as well as acquisition of knowledge.
1.14 Accelerated remedial learning
In spite of mitigation measures, school closures have reduced the pace of learning progress.
The reopening of schools should attract the educators to identify the learning gaps and design remedial or transitional intervention programmes to bridge the gap. The learning facilitators needs to use different innovative teaching methods so as to improve the performance of learners. The accelerated remedial teaching- learning method should be used as post crisis approach. Acceleration focuses on preparing students for success with upcoming new learning and lays the foundation for continued academic growth. This learning approach helps since most learners are not starting from a blank slate, but building on learning that has already occurred. Accelerated learning keeps students moving forward on their intended grade-level trajectories by strategically preparing them for success in current grade-level content.
Acceleration prepares students for new learning combined with “just-in-time” teaching of missing key skills and concepts in the purposeful context of current lessons. Using remediation has its own shortcomings such as it delays opportunities to learn new content until students have mastered all missing skills and concepts, leaving them further and further behind their grade-level. For the accelerated remedial learning to yield the results there is need to limit and integrate the relative learning areas. For instance science and technology, information technology and agriculture should be evaluated as a single learning area. The limited school curriculum should be aligned to the national standards guided by the policy.
1.15 Engagement/ collaborative learning & online learning
The economic shocks induced by COVID-19 has dried up revenue streams for education in developing countries. This means for the government to commit itself to improve the resources needed to improve the performance of learner would be a big huddle. There is need to work with other partners such as the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) to recognize opportunities for change and mobilize resources to ensure there is change of behavior and attitudes amongst the learners. Focus on building trusting collaborative relationships among teachers, families, and community members. Collaborative learning provides a community of support for each individual as he or she goes through the learning process (Brooks, 1998 in UNESCO, 2020b). Another potentials engagement partners are the parents/guardians. Every parent wants the best for their children and their families. Schools are part of their communities.
Activities such as reading with one’s children, checking their homework, and setting high
expectations for academic success have been shown to be positively related to academic achievement. Homework is an important learning strategy which can be used to reinforce the skills learnt in the class.
1.15.1 Online learning
The COVID-19 has provided us with the opportunity to adopt online learning approach. The emerging of the pandemic had created a wholesome opportunity to use the digital teaching- learning system. In Zimbabwe was a serious resistance of adopting e-learning. It has been believed that e-learning is viable only to tertiary education. The new look had been identified of making use of online learning during unprecedented times of crisis. Therefore, the closure of schools as a result of mitigating the wave of coronavirus was a blessing in disguise for the education system in Zimbabwe. There is now an appreciation of leaving the traditional convectional approach and adopt the new normal of e-learning. E-learning and online learning can be used interchangeably. The use of e-learning has been noted to be an effective teaching approach and is a model which can be used during crisis. The traditional approach is now a thing of the past in developing countries. Covid-19 has acted as an eye opener to Zimbabwean community. There is need for the government of Zimbabwe to mobilise the resource towards E-learning so that each and every community is not left out. Ali (2020) is in acquiesce with the views of WHO (2020b) that online learning environments foster additional learning experiences where learners can interact, collaborate, and it leads to self-directed learning which is noble to success. There is need to empower teaching facilitators so as to build their confidence of implementing the online integrated teaching. This means both facilitators and learners need to have access to ICT tools so that they can have curriculum content available on ICT devices. This will enable the facilitators and learners to communicate at any given time hence closing the learning gap. Moving to online learning scale-up performance of learners.
Ali (2020) urges that there is need to accelerate the pace of technology iteration, and optimize the technical application of online education programs considering the alarming impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
1.16 Evaluation and monitoring
Monitoring and evaluation is a powerful management tool that can be used to improve the teaching and learning environment. The key stakeholders such as the parents, teachers and partners should monitor the performance of learners. Such a collective approach will enhance the learners to work hard. Parents will monitor the homework of learners. The formative evaluation should be done consistently so as to measure the progression of learners and then design an appropriate intervention strategy to close the gap. The summative assessment will include the continuous assessment tracking which is the key component in the current national curriculum. Makhurane & Nyoni (2017) narrates that continuous assessment helps to identify the progression of each learner and an immediate intervention strategy will be rendered to make sure there is positive attainment of the outcome and objectives. In this case the facilitator might make use of daily tests, morning work, homework, group work, peer teaching, weekly tests and even monthly assessment. The monitoring and evaluation plan is a supervising method of assessing the performance, using teacher initiated instruments or the curriculum based tests.
This plan ensure quality and access, assess programmes and it also assess the strengths and weaknesses of the system. Monitoring and formative evaluation of learners in the classroom is an integral component of the teaching‐learning process. Monitoring learning behaviours and outcomes is key to inform education progression and success. Progress can be monitored by using different approaches such as the use of modern technological mobile phone surveys, and performance from learning platforms so as to identify learning gaps.
The process also monitors the behaviour of learners and academic performance. Its role is to determine students’ current levels of knowledge, skills or understanding, to diagnose problems that they may be encountering, to make decisions about the next intervention steps to be taken and to evaluate the learning that has taken place. The summative evaluation would be the last assessment approach to be used to monitor the performance of learners.
1.16.1 Facilitator self-evaluation
This approach is a flexible evaluation technique which give a self-reflection of the work done in the classroom. This entails that the failure of learners might be as a result of poor planning and questioning technique of the facilitator. Educational facilitators are the heart of the education system. They play an important role of reskilling and up skilling the learners through flexible alternatives. Their actions are more geared towards changing behavior and boosting skills for development.
1.17 Conclusion
Having attempted to close the learning gap caused by the unplanned closure of institutional learning, the study came up with a model called the Post-Crisis Pathway Bridge. The Post- Crisis Pathway Bridge had been designed as a possible framework with strategies of bridging the learning gap caused by the outbreak of coronavirus. This study recommends the Ministry of Education, parents/guardians, civic organisations and learners to use the stages of the Post- Crisis Pathway Bridge.
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