The shortcomings of emergency remote teaching in rural settings of Zimbabwe during COVID-19 school closures: Lessons from China’s experience

Abstract

Background: In the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, schools were forced to close indefinitely with no clue as to when they would reopen. Upon school closures, remote teaching was adopted, with online teaching becoming the most preferred mode of instruction, yet the Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure was not adequate enough across the country.Aim: This article scrutinises the remote teaching approaches that were put in place in Zimbabwe in response to the closure of schools during the COVID-19 lockdown. The article investigates how the adopted approaches were suitable for conditions in rural settings.Setting: The study looks at the challenges faced in the implementation of remote teaching during COVID-19 school closures in rural areas of Matabeleland provinces in Zimbabwe.Methods: The study adopted a qualitative phenomenological approach to analyse the teaching approaches that were put in place by the government and other stakeholders. Twenty teachers from 20 rural schools drawn equitably from two provinces, Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North, were interviewed on the shortcomings of these remote teaching approaches.Results: The results revealed that the remote teaching approaches that were put in place excluded learners in rural settings. This is because of the challenges in infrastructure, economic condition and restrictions on remote teaching approaches imposed by the government.Conclusion: As Zimbabwe is facing economic hardships and infrastructure development challenges, it was supposed to adopt emergency remote teaching instead of long-term approaches. A variety of approaches that suit specific physical environments should have been adopted instead of sticking to only one throughout the country.

A comparative study of pupils’ performance during online and face-to-face learning in under resourced secondary schools of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

“…Other factors that make online learning less favorable especially in under resourced schools include poor internet connections, unaffordability of smart phones, lack of training on effective utilization of online learning platforms by both learners and teachers and complexity of conducting practical lessons online. These were echoed in research done by Adarkwah (2021), Almaiah et al (2020), Baticulon et al (2021), Dhawan (2020), Howard et al (2020), and Nhongo and Tshotsho (2021).…”

“…The argument is that, if pupils in areas with network and infrastructure for online teaching are failing, it implies rural schools can virtually not manage online teaching (Nhongo & Tshotsho, 2021). If urban school pupils are passing, then it is possible to conduct online teaching in Zimbabwe given the infrastructure for online learning.…”

Adopting Virtual Classes during the COVID-19 Lockdown: Interrogating New Approaches to Teaching and the Exclusion of Learners in Rural Settings

“…Governments, worldwide implemented school closures as a way of controlling the spread of COVID-19 in early 2020 (Burzynska & Contreras, 2020;Viner et al, 2020). History shows that the only time that Zimbabwe closed schools was from 1977 to 1980 as a result of the liberation struggle (Kriger, 1988;Nhongo & Tshotsho, 2021). It is vital to begin by looking at the experiences of other countries to understand how they adopted new approaches to ensure continuity in education during the COVID-19 induced lockdown.…”

An Introspection Into Instructional Challenges at a University in Zimbabwe During the COVID-19 Lockdown

“…While the South African government is promoting online learning as the only alternative in the context of COVID-19, this mode excludes many rural learners from teaching and learning, due to a lack of resources to connect to the internet, the learning management system, and low-tech software ( Dube, 2020 , p. 134). Nhongo and Tshotsho (2021) examined the approaches for teaching and learning that were used by Zimbabwe's schools during the COVID-19 lockdown. They suggested that a variety of approaches that suit particular physical environments should have been adopted for each geographical location instead of trying to use a uniform approach throughout the country.…”