Challenges for the National Education System in the COVID19 Era

Abstract

The Covid19 pandemic interrupted the normal teaching process all over the world. Some countries, including the G7-member countries, were better prepared for facing the new challenges of the Distance Learning paradigm. In our country, the effect of Covid19 in the education system was close to a disaster as our system was unprepared for facing such a sudden paradigm shift. The Ministry of Education informed that the teaching will take place using a new, never used paradigm referred to as Distance Learning. 2 In these circumstances, it was necessary to organize a study to understand what were the feelings of students and professors using distance learning. To undertake the study, the technology of Mind Genomics was used. Mind Genomics uses statistical models, data mining, and clustering techniques to evaluate important patterns of thinking of students and professors as well. Four pillars (or silos) were defined to be the focus of the study; Effectiveness, Interaction, Feasibility, and the Future of the new teaching paradigm. Among the data collected from students are age, gender, and the reasons 1) Looking for: Fast learning through tutorial services 2) Looking for: Every time and everywhere learning, and 3) Looking for: Learning while working. Results show that 37% of respondents (the value of intercept) are inclined to use distance learning in absence of any other information about elements. This is a rather encouraging result. In general, most of the students and professors, 49.41% of them, use distance learning for the reason any time and everywhere learning. This result reinforces the idea that 37% of respondents are in favor of this learning paradigm in absence of any other information. Next, 27.06% of respondents use distance learning for Learning through tutorial services. Learning while working is the least appreciated reason, 23.53%. The study shows that the effectiveness and the interactivity of this new paradigm are very important and any further developments of distance learning should provide strong support for these components. The position of the professor is indispensable as the guide to the entire process, suggesting that at least at the time of this writing (2020) distance learning approach is perceived only to be an intermittent complementary path to in-person interactions.