School directors warned of the growing cases of "abandonment of interest and motivation" of primary and secondary school students tired of teaching. online, which again marked the second period of classes.
The second period in compulsory education ends today. There were three months of classes in which most of the time was spent at home, with classes in front of a computer, due to the worsening of Covid-19 cases.
«There were more distance classes than face-to-face classes. In the case of the youngest, the difference was smaller”, said Filinto Lima, president of the National Association of Directors of Groupings and Public Schools (ANDAEP), referring to pre-school and 1st cycle students who have returned to school on March 15th.
The approximately 500 students from the 2nd and 3rd cycles, as well as the more than 330 from the secondary, will only return to sit in the classrooms after the Easter holidays. Gone is another period in which the pandemic forced them to take classes without leaving the house.
School directors noticed improvements in relation to the first distance learning experience, which began in March of the last academic year: “The digital literacy of teachers and students has increased and there is much more equipment distributed”, pointed out Filinto Lima.
The president of the National Association of School Leaders (ANDE), Manuel Pereira, added that "computers continue to arrive at schools every day, in addition to the support of many municipalities that ensured the Internet in the homes of many families."
Manuel Pereira also recalled the experience acquired by teachers, who had more time to plan and prepare classes online. However, he underlined, "nothing replaces the presence of students in the classroom and socializing at school."
The fear of seeing an increase in cases of early school leaving was replaced by the certainty of another dropout: «There was no physical abandonment, because we know the students, we know where they live and if necessary we will know what is going on. But there was an abandonment of interest and motivation for the school», warned the director of the General Serpa Pinto School Grouping, in Cinfães.
Recognizing that "it is not easy to have teenagers clinging to classes through a computer all day long", the director told Lusa that the teachers were realizing during the 2nd period of the "lack of interest, tiredness and even an exhaustion in relation to new technologies».
The students themselves confessed to Manuel Pereira that they are “unmotivated and tired”: “Students tell us they are saturated, many of them are only in class to meet the schedule. And this lack of interest also affected those students who were very interested in the school», he said.
In addition to the learning that was left behind, there is the issue of mental health that also concerns teachers.
“School is a fundamental socialization space and students are tired of being at home. They want to be at school with their peers," recalled Filinto Lima, defending the need to "strengthen the number of specialist technicians in schools, especially psychologists.
To this equation Manuel Pereira added the teachers: «We have many teachers in pre-burnout. They started to have a lot more work at home than they had at school. In addition, many found themselves faced with the difficult task of trying to reconcile work and family life. We have many teachers who are also parents and have been teaching while their children also had classes and needed support».
Among the new tasks, there were teachers who made themselves available to go to the homes of students who were unable to enter the classroom online.
“We had teachers and operational assistants who went from village to village, from house to house, helping families to get their computers working, especially for younger students,” recalled Manuel Pereira.
The task of teaching the little ones was especially complicated due to the lack of autonomy and difficulty in concentrating in classes, a situation that was made worse when solid family support was lacking, Filinto Lima added.
Also for this reason, the approximately 370 thousand students in the 1st cycle were among the first to return to school. Even so, the president of ANDAEP estimates that the recovery of learning by these students will be a lengthy process, which will not be resolved soon.
In just over a week, on April 5th, classes start again. For students from the 1st to the 3rd cycle, they will be given again at the school.
The directors hope that this return will be "in force and by the end of the year" and they fear only for the attitudes of the population in general, which could jeopardize the ongoing distrust.
“I often liked to bring society into the school so they could learn to have rules. You see a lot of people not complying with the most elementary rules», lamented Filinto Lima.
The principals again stress that schools are safe places and that cases of infection among the school community are rare.
Since January, around 150 tests have been carried out with Covid-19 in schools with a positivity rate of just over 0,1%.
Easter holidays begin on Friday with the vaccination against Covid-19 of teachers and employees of the pre-school and the 1st cycle scheduled for the weekend, followed by the vaccination of those who work at the other levels 10 and 11 April.
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