There’s the hint of dim light in the room, a lamp, where children in well-worn clothes—jersey tops and shorts, bare feet or rubber slippers of the pink or blue variety sit around a wooden table. The mother-teacher hovers around attentively, minding her students who seem to be concentrating on their lessons. The two-room dwelling walls sport remnants of whitewash paint. The earth floor is well-swept, and it must be humid inside, although there’s a breeze as the curtain waves up and there’s no mistaking the galvanised ceiling—and roof that the sun beats upon. It is a humble home that a person, determined to shelter his or her family, had probably built, perhaps on state land.
The wooden house stands on stick-like props precariously on a hill. There’s a water tank. Buckets and plastic basins sit on a wooden counter, presumably, where they wash clothes. There’s an outhouse farther up the hill. Apparently, there’s no pipe-borne water, neither electricity. The scenario captures an unspoken tale of children in a home without electricity, while the lack of access to distance learning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns comes into focus. To the credit of that family, they’d picked up learning packages from the school. It’s a portrayal of heart-tugging stories on the television news often since the lockdowns started. And it’s a typical scene from East to West, North to South, like another very poignant one televised last week. A mother walked for a few miles with her sons on the Blanchisseuse road to find a wi-fi hot spot so the children could join classes on their cell phones.
If the pandemic has done anything, it is to reveal the extent of poverty and inequity. Even if those children had computers, they wouldn’t be in a better position without electricity and wi-fi access. It is some of those same children who are vulnerable to the pressures of community and school life. It is also true that many children with access to virtual learning don’t benefit from it because of the lack of guidance and support they need at home.
These human stories tug at one’s heart, and you can’t help but ask why, not necessarily in an accusatory way. Of course, poverty has been a reality with every generation. It will continue throughout future generations once there are disadvantageous domestic circumstances and inequalities of opportunities for education, earning an income, and the distribution of resources. More so, if our contentious governance model prevails—a model greased by the kind of divisiveness that satisfies power-lust but not the common good, then there will be little progress. A flawed education system, unemployment, high crime, and poverty have deep roots. These problems are universal. But we shouldn’t blame the education system for every societal failing. These are intractable problems reflective of the many influences on human development. Dealing with severe societal issues require continuity of reform strategies, which can only work and reap social dividends over time if there is continuity regardless of the political party in power. There are tremendous opportunities on COVID’s platter to shift the paradigm from an irrelevant governance model to one that is socially, economically and politically inclusive and productive.
Distance learning has been around for decades. Thanks to COVID, its time has arrived for universality. It will remain necessary to education delivery, industry and commerce, and governance by the sheer force of circumstance. Who says COVID isn’t here to stay like other respiratory diseases? History is replete with epochal events devastating to lives—world wars, slavery and oppression, genocide, pandemics, and ruthless environmental destruction. All these cruel events are part of the present world landscape. Perhaps, the greatest of human tragedies is the failure to learn the lessons of history.
Education chasms are swallowing our children. Thousands of them weren’t engaged in stuffy classrooms anyway. Bet your last dollar safely that technology engages them. Education-wise, computers and wi-fi access are necessities but useless in homes without the basic needs of life. The clock isn’t turning back to pre-COVID times. We must have the will to face the new realities of life and bring poverty to “virtually” non-existence.