Repeating Class in 2021 to Affect Students Psychologically

Following the closure of schools due to COVID-19, students are becoming extremely tired of staying at home. Those who have been learning online have also started getting bored. Based on research done by Teacher.co.ke, many learners miss the joy of being in school because there was more interaction with other learners and teachers. Besides, at school, co-curricular activities done during ‘games’, ‘break time’, and ‘recess’ made school more enjoyable.

Imagine those times in Primary school when you had to attend tuition at home for a private lesson. When a single teacher attends to a handful of students, it can be weird to start with, especially if those learners are accustomed to a class of 30 or more. They eventually start getting bored.

Leaners have been at home for over four months now and they will probably stay at home until next year. For students in Tertiary institutions like colleges and universities will resume in September as long as their respective institutions adhere to the regulations put in place by the government.

“Students will suffer a huge learning loss and we will have to be aware of this when learning resumes,” said Dr. Sara Ruto who is the chairperson of the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).

She told the media that learners who will suffer the most are those in ‘emergent’ stages. These emergent stages include students in Grade Four, those who were just beginning school, and Form One and First-Year Students in universities and colleges.

“The probability of students in these stages lapsing back are high. For instance, leaners who just learned numeracy, and learning how those letters are formed and sounds they represent have had their progress interrupted due to this long Corona-enforced break,” said the KICD chairperson.

Besides teachers and parents will have to prepare to face the psychological effect of students having to repeat classes and the attendant stigma that comes with it. Learners will feel like they are having an uncertain future. In addition, they might be afraid that they may have forgotten what they had learned, and failure as a result.

Teachers and policymakers will be at fault if they fail to assess how much content learners have lost by 2021 when schools resume.

“We should retool teachers to assess learners. We should not think about grade-level achievement but rather focus on individual learners.” Added the KICD chairperson Dr. Sara Ruto.