Paper Example: Students Should Return to School During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Owing to the outbreak of coronavirus, learning in schools has been hampered with most students exploring distance learning approaches, such as online lessons. According to Ali (2020), institutions have employed online learning tools, whose teaching methods ensure that students can learn from home with minimal distractions. However, the conduciveness of the environment at home, where parents may abuse their children, raises questions about how effective distance learning is and whether students should return to school. Therefore, this thesis assesses the need for reopening schools based on the issue of abusive parents compromising the effectiveness of online learning.

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Ali (2020) maintained that ICT-immersed classes continue to offer an encouraging learning environment away from school for students during this COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the heightened risk of violence between parents, which may also be directed to their children, are likely to increase incidences of child abuse that affects the children’s ability to focus on the online lessons (“COVID-19 and Children’s Rights”, 2020). Additionally, compared to home, children are more likely to receive proper intervention if they were learning from school since teachers can detect signs of abuse easily among their students. Therefore, to some extent, allowing students to return to school would be justified on these grounds.

All in all, if schools were to reopen, they will have to observe precautionary measures since the pandemic is still spreading rapidly. In South Korea, for instance, two students tested positive for COVID-19 after they returned to school, forcing the administration to send some children back home and delaying plans to reopen other schools (Xuemin, 2020). As such, due to the safety concerns, this proposal advances the position that the unfavorable environment at home that jeopardizes distance learning cannot justify exclusively the need to allow students to return to school.

References

Ali, W. (2020). Online and Remote Learning in Higher Education Institutes: A Necessity in light of COVID-19 Pandemic. Higher Education, 10(3). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341460604_Online_and_Remote_Learning_in_Higher_Education_Institutes_A_Necessity_in_light_of_COVID-19_Pandemic/link/5ec3a85792851c11a8743741/download

COVID-19 and Children’s Rights. (2020). Reliefweb. https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/COVID-19%20and%20Children%E2%80%99s%20Rights.pdf

Xuemin, Y. (2020). COVID-19 Global Roundup: Is it safe for students to go back to school? https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-05-21/COVID-19-Global-Roundup-Is-it-safe-for-students-to-go-back-to-school--QFNekwq6WI/index.html