EDUCATION AND TRAINING DURING THE FIRST WAVE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

During the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, life in Slovenia came to a standstill; schools closed and classes were held remotely. Distance education was a completely new experience for pupils, teachers and headteachers alike. For this reason, the National Education Institute conducted a survey to find out how the education and care was carried out, and how it was experienced by all groups of participants: pupils, teachers and headteachers. The survey provided a number of important insights, including that distance learning was more challenging and stressful for teachers compared to face-to-face teaching, although they still achieved their objectives to a considerable extent. The objectives that were not achieved should be integrated into the objectives for the next school year. However, in spite of the relatively high achievement of the objectives, most of the teachers questioned the reality of their own insight into the extent to which these objectives are actually being mastered by the pupils. A significant challenge was posed by the social and emotional objectives, which a large majority believed were not feasible through distance education. The pupils‘ experience of their own learning from home varied and they were evenly divided into three groups: about a third of the pupils liked this way of learning and rated it as more successful, a third of the pupils rated it as challenging as before, and a third of the pupils rated distance learning as more challenging than face-to-face learning. Based on the survey, the National Education Institute developed a series of training courses, distance learning guidelines and good practice examples to support teachers during the pandemic.