With the spread of the “coronavirus” in Lebanon, the Minister of Education and Higher Education Tarek Al-Majzoub announced the suspension of public and private schools and universities until further notice as a preventive measure to protect students. So will the schools go for the option of teaching over the internet “ Online learning” as an alternative to traditional teaching in order to save what remains of the academic year?
As an example, the “Al-Ahed” news site contacted the general administration of the Religious Education Association - Al-Mustafa (peace be upon him) Schools and Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association, asking about the steps they are taking amid this crisis, especially if the crisis remains open to further suspension because of the widening spread of the virus.
Al-Mustafa (peace be upon him) Schools
The central director of Al-Mustafa (peace be upon him) Schools Hussein Al-Zein affirmed to “Al-Ahed” that the Religious Education Association had earlier introduced electronic teaching within its strategic planning vision in anticipation of any crisis - electronic teaching in the schools began before corona, such as the smart board method and the electronic diary that allows parents to follow their children's study situation directly on their smartphones, where they can see the calendar of activities, the marks and the examination dates in addition to the behavioural observations, alongside their own electronic portal.
He added: “Today Al-Mustafa (peace be upon him) Schools adopt distance learning by sending the lessons, homework and activities to their pupils while seeking to strengthen some skills in them and allowing them to revise the lessons previously explained”, explaining: “We earlier activated an electronic portal through which we can communicate with about 90% of the students.”
Al-Zein stressed that Al-Mustafa (peace be upon him) Schools are studying the possibility of teaching via Skype technology if the forced holiday continues, and are currently carrying out live trials to take in all the aspects of teaching via this technology.
He pointed out that the association is also seeking to prepare video clips along the lines of the teaching sites on YouTube, in an engaging and interactive style in which the teacher explains the new lessons to the students - but this step faces many technological problems and must be studied carefully.
Al-Mabarrat Association
Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association has begun the same step, as it will film video clips in which the teacher explains new lessons, according to the coordinator of the Directorate of Education at Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association Fayez Jaloul, who gave the reassurance that the association is also working on reducing the download size of these clips in consideration of the families' financial circumstances.
He explained to “Al-Ahed” that Al-Mabarrat's schools began from the first week sending support cards to the students containing questions drawn from the lessons explained in the recent period in “PDF” format, via the Al-Mabarrat schools application - an interactive system for communication between the school and the families in order to exchange information between them. He pointed out that the schools were keen to guide the families on how to use the application.
He said: “When the Minister of Education announced the continuation of the forced holiday for a second week, the schools sent the answers to the first cards so that the families could assess their children and guide them to the correct answers, in addition to new cards to solve”, noting that the school administrations asked families who had no internet to come directly to the school to receive the paper cards.
Jaloul affirmed that the administration stressed to the families that they should deal with this card honestly and push their children to solve it on their own, noting that the teachers are in continuous contact with the students' families. He explained that the association is about to launch a technology that allows a student to upload the card whose questions they have answered electronically to the teacher, who will assess their pupils' situation themselves.
Jaloul noted that the option of going to direct “online” teaching, especially for the official certificates, is possible and has been put forward but is under study, pointing out that the association is in continuous contact with the Educational Centre for Research and Development to ensure learning for everyone from all classes and areas and to exchange expertise between them.
The administrations of the two associations affirmed that they are waiting for the decision on extending the schools' closure or returning to the classrooms to be settled, in the light of the medical data on the development of the “coronavirus” - and on that basis the matter of going to electronic teaching or not will be decided accordingly.
Source: Al-Ahed site
Writer: Iman Mustafa
