#LearningConnects: How are teachers of vocational education and training in Central Asia coping during the COVID-19 crisis?
To help ETF partner countries deal with learning under lockdown, we've been having conversations with people dealing day-to-day issues of education, training during the COVID-19 crisis.
On April 30, we talked to three VET schoolteachers in Central Asia to understand how they have overcome the challenges of teaching during lockdown.
Central Asia has escaped the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, with infections and mortality numbers lower than many other countries, but the ability of VET systems to respond to the needs of teaching under quarantine have varied widely across the region.
At the time when this call took place, in Kyrgyzstan there had been just 17 deaths attributed to COVID-19; in Uzbekistan 15 and Kazakhstan 41. However, that does not mean that learners have not been affected. All countries have taken a range of measures that have interrupted normal education.
Natalia Zhaksybayeva, is a teacher of special disciplines from the Central Asian Technical and Economic College, Almaty, Kazakhstan, a college of 800 students that specialises in IT and communication.
The switch to online learning went relatively smoothly in Kazakhstan, where distance-learning methods have been employed within the vocational education and training system already for some years, she says.
"Distance learning is not something new for Kazakhstan; we have been under quarantine since March 16 and have paid close attention to our students as they are the first to know what to do in such a situation. They told us they can all work on a distance basis, they all use free Internet resources and we have followed them to platforms such as Zoom."
As a college that has a number of servers and quite a lot of technological equipment that produces large amount of data, college leaders had already given thought to the question of data storage, she adds.
"Even before quarantine, when we realised that we would need to switch to distance learning, we considered the question of data storage. We are an IT college with a lot of equipment and servers. We looked at the issue and decided to use cloud storage."
The first challenge of moving over fully to online learning was that of which platform or platforms to use, she says.
"There are dozens of different messenger platforms; we have 11 study groups in the college and all have different views. We discussed the issue widely. There are plenty of platforms. Some of them are very expensive. But we have been offered free access and the providers have helped us so much. In the end we settled on a Mac application to use across the college for our online work."
The key in making the decision was simplicity and ease of use and system compatibility across the country, she adds.
Elnura Kyzy, a teacher and Deputy Director of Lyceum 98, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, says: "Like our colleagues in Kazakhstan we had a period of confusion because it was an unclear period when we didn't understand where to go, what to do."
They soon overcame that challenge, she adds:
"It was not for long because now we already understand, because as a professional college of information and technology, a lot of our teachers work with various platforms and on the first day after quarantine began we already started using video seminars."
There was also support from the national agency for professional technical education, via a system of online support that helped any teachers that needed it to learn how to use online material and platforms for distance learning.
"The main problem we have faced is with ensuring good Internet connections," she notes, "because many people during quarantine left for the countryside and the Internet does not work as well there as in the city, even though all our providers ensured that teachers and students could access the Internet free of charge."
For Sirozhiddin Olimov, a teacher of the Academic Lyceum of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, it was a bit more challenging.
"We went to work and our director explained that quarantine was not a holiday and work was to continue. The deputy directors and heads of departments got together and said, we have to work but via what means may we do that? We may organise distance learning. We had heard of distance learning but had not used it before - though of course we had some experience, but had not taught via it before."
The staff clearly understood that they would have to hit the ground running to avoid their students "relaxing and not taking us seriously."
"We started looking at what means we could use for online learning," Sirozhiddin adds. "We gathered a group together who understood technology and decided to work with Telegram and started training with this - how to use it to open channels and work as a group with it."
All three VET teachers report common responses across Central Asia, with individual colleges initially scrambling to produce fresh materials for online teaching, support from government ministries to introduce national TV channels dedicated to bringing teaching to all children and young people, and the willingness of providers to step in to offer free Internet access for learners and teachers.
But the sophistication and preparedness of the countries varies, with Kazakhstan - the richest nation in the region - better equipped to make a smooth switch to online than others.
Our Ministry of Education has been fantastic," Natalia notes. "They have really helped us and all teachers across Kazakhstan. They have organised daily seminars to support teachers across the country in ensuring that online education works in all settings."
It is important to understand that the entire system could not work without the support of the education system as a whole, she observes.
"Of course there are pluses and minuses, but I can say that we have had 100 percent attendance by our students and actually the quality of education is better because the control is not just that of what one teacher sees, but administrators can also observe."
In Kyrgyzstan the major challenge has been to ensure both connectivity and that students have the means to access online lessons, Elnura says.
There have also been challenges in how the college delivers its timetable.
"We have had to change how we work in response to the circumstances. Lessons are sent out in the morning and only returned in the evenings," she says. "We have also tried to maintain practical lessons, for example through teachers allowing students longer to complete practical tasks. Of course, changing the timetable in this way has certain inconveniences, but now we seems to have overcome most of these issues; it was complicated at the beginning because it was new, unique, everything simply exploded, but now the system has settled down and things are working well."
Some practical lessons have been possible, for example by setting students tasks they can complete at home, or working with employers that have been engaged in work-based learning with students.
A new area for all has been a much closer relationship with parents.
"Parents were rather cautious at first and the kids were not taking it seriously as first but when we started working with it, parents and kids understood that this could be used seriously for teaching purposes," Sirrozhidin says.
Natalia agrees:
"Parents now have to be much more involved in the education of their children; we've opened a section in our online cabinet for parents - if parents need to make contact with any questions they can. And we have already also had two online parent meetings to provide support and we provide individual video consultations where necessary."
As for the future, although all three emphasise the importance of traditional face-to-face classes - which are of particular value for inculcating social skills - they agree that aspects of online learning are here to stay in vocational education and training in Central Asia.
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