This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 15, 2021 - March 21, 2021

ONLINE education has catapulted to the forefront with the closure of schools since last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is hamstrung by multiple handicaps ranging from access limitations to gaps in teacher-student capacities and social disadvantage.

“Both Covid-19 reportage and academic research confirm that online education is not a panacea,” says development economist Prof M Niaz Asadullah.

“Online education is a promising idea and surely an important part of the future of education, but it has many constraints which are not yet fully understood,” says Niaz, who is based at the Faculty of Economics and Administration, Universiti Malaya and is an adviser to three international academic journals on education.

How students learn and what teaching technique is most effective pose a complex challenge for educators. The abrupt closure of schools last March to stop the spread of the virus exposed the severe lack of access to resources among poor students, including a digital environment.

“Academics are researching the science and the correlates of cognitive development in resource-strapped environments,” says Niaz in an interview with The Edge.

He is exploring students’ learning activities and well-being during school closure as well as the contrasting response of wealthy and poor parents to children’s educational needs during the pandemic.

One survey in the Klang Valley was completed in December, in which over 300 secondary school students from 12 districts were interviewed.

In the sample, 52% were in upper secondary school. Respondents reported a low level of learning activity at home during the nationwide school closure in terms of time spent on education, says Niaz. A decline in mental health was also seen.

“This suggests that home-based learning schemes such as PdPR (home-based education) were not enough to motivate children to study even in resource-rich and digitally connected locations, he observes.

Another survey completed in January this year has a nationwide coverage and much wider objectives.

Close to 7,000 students responded from 10 states, providing detailed information on time use patterns, access to digital resources at home, experience with the Ministry of Education’s online learning programmes and the use of private tutoring services to cope with school closure.

“Preliminary analysis indicates a sharp rise in online tutoring among children from economically well-off families both during the first and second school closure,” says Niaz.

As online learning is still unfolding as a medium, Niaz recommends an experimental approach to its adoption, and it should only be treated as a complement to traditional education models.

“The challenge, therefore, is to develop an effective ‘blended learning model’ that would work at home as well as in school settings,” says Niaz.

Implementers must continue to learn from evidence gathered through carefully designed trials and taking note of errors and failures. Collaboration among multiple actors should be a key feature of the process. This includes the Ministry of Education partnering social scientists who specialise in this field.

“Ensuring learning takes more than technology; we need an integrated system where all stakeholders — policymakers, school administrations, teachers, parents, students and partner groups — work together instead of leaving the responsibility to others,” Niaz observes.

The challenge, however, is in encouraging the much-needed institutional innovation to make this happen in an administration where educational management remains heavily centralised, he notes.

A major hurdle for online education has been the lack of capacity among poorer parents to play a vital supportive role.

The sudden prominence of online education has exposed this disparity between rich and poor households — a parental divide.

This a specific form of social disparity at birth, which takes the form of inequality in parenting capability, says Niaz.

“It’s a fundamental cause of inequality of educational opportunity,” he states.

For instance, parents with tertiary education holding professional jobs can effectively guide children at home to cope with the new reality of online education.

“Their children would complete homework on time and attend online lessons regularly. These parents also have greater mental health literacy and are more reactive to children in psychological distress or experiencing ‘online anxiety’,” says Niaz.

In contrast, parents in the bottom 40% of households (B40) are without university degrees, lack digital literacy and are often in low-paying jobs. With the added burden of poverty, they have less time and mental and digital capability to assist and monitor children in home-based online learning.

“This also means reduced protection for the mental and emotional health of children, which is an important correlate of educational performance,” Niaz observes.

National health data already signals this problem. Even a year before the pandemic, according to the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2019, close to half a million children and adolescents in Malaysia faced mental health issues.

“This parental divide is likely to have worsened during the Movement Control Order as many B40 parents became jobless and are in economic distress,” Niaz notes.

Closing the parenting divide is important for two reasons.

The first, says Niaz, is to make the most out of online learning, particularly during the stay-at-home period. Without active support from parents, the participation rate in online lessons remains low. Secondly, parental re-engagement is also an important step as part of the government’s plan to prepare children for a full return to school. The lack of school readiness among B40 children is a challenge and parents have an important role to motivate and prepare children to fully benefit from the phased reopening of schools.

A constructive role can be played by parent-teacher associations (PTAs) to improve communications in online instruction.

To overcome the restrictions put in place due to Covid-19, schools can mobilise parents and teachers remotely through online PTAs. This will make it possible for teachers to reach out to parents more frequently and regularly without parents having to come to school.

As smartphones have become ubiquitous, they can be used to connect PTA members in an online environment.

With this, teachers can easily share feedback on children’s progress and learning problems with parents. Likewise, parents too can contact teachers more easily and notify them about learning difficulties at home and with online platforms.

“For learners in Years 1-6 who are too young to act for themselves, ‘connected PTAs’ can play an important role in making online learning effective and inclusive,” says Niaz.

Mental health issues including a loss of motivation for learning have become a matter of concern with the prolonged closure of schools.

To address the many dimensions of this problem, a multidimensional approach is in order, says Niaz. This would involve rethinking the role of schools, households, teachers and technology.

“The loss of motivation is not just a matter of lack of money or resources. As an economist working on the issue of happiness, for me, the starting point is securing mental health for all,” he says.

Parent-child relationships, particularly in low-income families, are not often positive. This creates huge challenges during adolescence when students have to prepare for high-stake exams like SPM and STPM.

“A participatory and collaborative approach is needed that can rebuild and strengthen parent-child-teacher relational bonds to make online education effective for all,” states Niaz.

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