Friday

29th Mar 2024

Education in coronavirus times: trial and error

  • The coronavirus offers a unique opportunity to improve education, despite the many inequalities that the crisis reveals (Photo: Pixabay)

The coronavirus outbreak has disrupted the school year of millions of students in the bloc, including international students.

For several weeks, most member states have - completely or partially - closed its education centres as part of their national strategies to fight the spread of the coronavirus.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

However, the lack of coordination among member states was evidenced once again during the informal videoconference of EU education ministers on Tuesday (14 April).

While some countries are set to reopen schools in the upcoming weeks, Portugal and Malta announced that schools will be closed until the end of the school year.

Denmark are expected to start reopening some kindergartens and schools from this week, although children should be at home if they were in contact with someone who was ill.

Additionally, Finland recently extended the restrictions on face-to-face teaching until 13 May, while the country is preparing for school closure until the end of the term (30 May 2020).

Meanwhile, primary and lower secondary schools remain open in Sweden since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis.

However, according to the commissioner for education and culture, Mariya Gabriel, "we need common standards in order to proceed with the next steps".

Differences in e-learning

While many member states faced problems to carry out e-learning at the beginning of the crisis, now most European countries are organising distance instruction.

However, commissioner Gabriel, warned that "not all teachers in the EU have the skills to deliver e-learning, [while] many schools in disadvantaged areas do not have the necessary infrastructure to allow children to succeed in digital education".

According to the director for education and skills at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Andreas Schleicher, the coronavirus also bring an unique opportunity for new models of education, despite the many inequalities that the crisis reveals.

"We can collaborate internationally to mutualise open online educational resources and digital learning platforms and encourage technology companies to join this effort and we can use the momentum to reshape curricula and learning environments to the needs of the 21st century," he said.

Estonia, the leading country in Europe on education, decided earlier this year to share several tools to support other countries' education systems.

However, Blaženka Divjak, the minister for education of Croatia - whose country holds the EU's presidency - believes that "the biggest concern is the social issue: how to safeguard equality".

The commissioner Gabriel also stressed that the current experience will be "vital" input for the upcoming Digital Education Action Plan, which the commission is expected to announce in June.

'Protect internationalisation'

Meanwhile, a new report based on the experience of 22,000 international students revealed that 65 percent will be able to continue their mobility programme - half of them have fully online classes and 34 percent have partially online courses.

"Several problems were reported with the technical implementation of online courses, and while these can probably be worked around somehow, the real 'Erasmus experience' is unlikely to be the same," reads the report published by the Erasmus Student Network (ESN).

For those who were taking part in an EU's mobility programme, the commission called on higher education institutions to be "as flexible and pragmatic a possible" to help students to achieve their learning agreements.

However, according to ESN research, the majority of students do not know what will happen to their grants and only 24 percent of the respondent reported that they will keep, partially or fully, their Erasmus scholarship.

Meanwhile, experts warn about the negative impact that the coronavirus outbreak can have on the Erasmus model as fears and concerns might continue once the crisis is over.

"One of the biggest concerns in the long-term is how to protect the idea of internationalisation to continue offering students international and intercultural skills," Renilde Knevels, policy advisor for internationalisation of universities of applied sciences in Flanders (Belgium), told EUobserver.

Column

Saving Europe from corona's nasty geopolitics

Four months into the corona crisis and one month into the social and economic shutdown, it seems the big geopolitical loser of the pandemic is likely going to be Europe.

Agenda

EU's corona exit strategies in focus This WEEK

While EU leaders are meeting the week after to deal with the economic consequences of the pandemic, the commission is expected to roll out a roadmap for exit strategies from lockdowns.

Roma 'at heightened risk' from corona crisis

The EU's Agency for Fundamental Rights has warned that Roma inequality and discrimination is growing due to the coronavirus outbreak. Meanwhile, the EU Commission will present a strategy for Roma equality to tackle discrimination.

Pandemic exposed gulf in EU digital-schooling

EU states who invested in digital education were better able to protect students from the pandemic, a new report has said. Meanwhile, poor and rural pupils were worse off.

Digital gap: 42% of EU citizens lack basic digital skills

While nine-out-of-10 future jobs will require digital skills, a new report revealed that a large part of EU citizens were unable to perform basic tasks such as connect to the wi-fi network or use websites.

EU commisisoner Šuica sounds alarm on demographic shift

The EU will have to step up its efforts to tackle looming demographic challenges over the next five years. If not, the bloc faces "sleepwalking into dark scenarios", warns EU commission vice-president Dubravka Šuica.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us