Landa Nhlanhla, Zhou Sindiso, Marongwe Newlin
Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of Fort Hare, Alice, South Africa.
Department of School Improvement Programmes, Walter Sisulu University, Queenstown, South Africa.
Int Rev Educ. 2021;67(1-2):167-183. doi: 10.1007/s11159-021-09903-z. Epub 2021 May 28.
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization upgraded the outbreak of COVID-19 to pandemic status. On 15 March 2020, the South African president declared a national state of disaster under the Disaster Management Act of 2002. On 26 March 2020, national lockdown, which included measures stipulated in guidelines for education in emergencies, was implemented in South Africa. The presidential declaration and subsequent lockdown came at a time when some of the universities in South Africa were already struggling either to commence the academic year, or to make up for time lost due to persistent student protests relating to several student demands. However, disaster management now entailed that all schools and institutions of higher education were forced to close immediately for extended periods, necessitating alternative ways of ensuring access to education. The qualitative case study presented in this article sought to document the intervention strategies developed by two universities located in remote parts of Eastern Cape Province to deliver education during the COVID-19 restrictions. A second aim was an examination of the challenges experienced by the two institutions' largely rural student population. The authors collected data using a questionnaire completed by 15 educators and 30 students from the two universities. They also analysed official communications documents from the universities addressed to lecturers and students. The results indicate that access to online teaching and learning platforms and resources for students from poor rural communities in South Africa is challenging, and that there are gross inequalities in educational outcomes for learners from different socio-economic backgrounds. This affects the future plans of higher education institutions to provide teaching and learning through online-based platforms. The authors conclude their article by providing recommendations to support online learning in rural areas, which has the potential to expand higher education access post-COVID-19.
2020年3月11日，世界卫生组织将新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情升级为大流行状态。2020年3月15日，南非总统根据2002年《灾害管理法》宣布全国进入灾难状态。2020年3月26日，南非实施全国封锁，其中包括紧急情况下教育指南中规定的措施。总统的声明及随后的封锁发生在南非一些大学已经在努力开学，或者努力弥补因学生持续抗议多项诉求而损失的时间的时候。然而，灾害管理现在要求所有中小学和高等教育机构立即长时间关闭，这就需要采取替代方式来确保受教育机会。本文所呈现的定性案例研究旨在记录东开普省偏远地区的两所大学为在新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情限制期间提供教育而制定的干预策略。第二个目标是考察这两所机构中以农村学生为主的群体所面临的挑战。作者通过由来自这两所大学的15名教育工作者和30名学生填写的问卷收集数据。他们还分析了大学发给教师和学生的官方通信文件。结果表明，南非贫困农村社区的学生获取在线教学平台和资源具有挑战性，而且来自不同社会经济背景的学习者在教育成果方面存在严重不平等。这影响了高等教育机构通过在线平台提供教学的未来计划。作者在文章结尾提出了支持农村地区在线学习的建议，这有可能在新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情后扩大高等教育的入学机会。
