New Forms of Schools Around the World

 written by 20607 Bae Seokyeung

 

As COVID-19 spread around the world, social distancing measures were carried out, such as shutting down locations where many people gather. Therefore, the problem of going to school came up seriously. People were concerned about children going to school since they could quickly be exposed to or carriers of the virus. Most schools around the world were physically closed to prevent serious health issues. So there were many changes to the education system world-wide to make it safer for students to learn from their homes.

 

America

As many countries have implemented an online learning environment, and the United States started their schools online in the spring of 2020. Many American schools use Google Classroom, Zoom, teams and so on. Through these programs, students share and learn with many teachers and friends. The SAT, originally scheduled for June 6^th, was canceled. The College Board announced that they would develop a plan to take the SAT at home if the schools fail to open in the second half of the year.

 

 China

China is offering classes provided by the cloud network platform and Massive Open Online Course  platform service. They reinforced psychological health through education to prevent students from infectious diseases by increasing immunity, public safety education, and eye movement. Since schools were closed for more than 70 days due to COVID-19, China postponed their university entrance exam, Gao Kao, for about a month. By the infection cases of COVID-19 are decreasing, they are also doing offline school classes.

 

France

The French Ministry of Education ordered to close schools and universities nationwide in early March and gradually started offline class in May. The French university entrance exam, Baccalauréat, was postponed because the situation was dangerous at the time. France replaced it with curriculum activities and performance tests. They also replaced the junior high school graduation certification test, Brevet, with their school evaluation. Through the My Home Classroom of the National Remote Education Center which provide distance classes, they are trying to resolve the education gap by providing digital video lecture.

 

South Korea

South Korea has the lowest digital utilization index of teachers for education among the seven out of thirty OECD. There were some trials and errors in introducing online education in the early stages. However, based on high IT technology, the Korea Educational Broadcasting System is gradually conducting better Online classes by improving apps’ quality. Many South Korean schools use Google Classroom, Zoom and EBS programs. The national college entrance exam scheduled for November 19^th changed to December 3^rd.

In countries where the cases of COVID-19 are decreasing, their classes are both at school and online. Many students cannot meet their friends and have fun at school like they used to. It may be a grim situation for students, but exciting things are happening in the midst of it.

For example, Macaire Everett and Camden Everett, living in Illinois, are giving joy to many people with their chalk drawings. Since COVID-19 is preventing them from going to school and traveling, they have drawn travel destinations. Afterward, they took pictures with each chalk drawing and posted them on SNS, such as Instagram, with the landmark’s real-world locations tagged.

Why don’t you find a little joy in your daily life now that everything has changed?