Keep distance education for students who stay at home.

Keep distance education for students who stay at home.

During the closure of schools due to the corona crisis, all students received remote education through online lessons, video instructions, or by calling their teacher. Schools are now open again and Ouders & Onderwijs thinks that the knowledge gained should be used, so that students who stay at home can still follow remote education.

Temporary solution

Distance education can be a (temporary) solution for all students who cannot go to school now. This includes students who stay at home because of the risk of corona or other reasons. Unfortunately, we already see that some schools stop providing distance education. Lack of time plays a role, but also some schools do not feel responsible for teaching children who cannot come to school.

Experiences with distance education

The experiences with distance education are mostly positive. Recently, we did a survey about this. Of 100 parents of students who stay at home, 60% said their child received full or partial distance education recently. Most of the time, the school started this, sometimes the parents. The partnership tailored education did not play a role. Parents support their child at home to plan and work on lessons. Sometimes they pay for distance education themselves. Almost half of the parents want their child to get distance education also after the corona crisis. Some see it as a supplement to school lessons. Besides ICT facilities, enough guidance from school is needed. For more information: download the report.

Options for distance education

Some options for distance education existed already, for example: IVIO@School and KlasseContact. Also, many new initiatives started recently. For example, Openbaar Onderwijs aan de Amstel has an online classroom so all their schools can provide distance education. Also, the partnership tailored education SWVPO 3006 made a website for home education for children with support needs.

Two sides

Every solution for students who stay at home or every discussion about this involves the legal duty to follow education and go to school regularly. For students who stay at home, this is exactly the problem now. Distance education is a support offer but not a full replacement for physical education at school or another place. It is for students who have no other education available. All parties keep trying, besides distance education, to offer students who stay at home suitable education in another way or to develop this offer. For students who go to school partly, distance education can be a bridge between home and school, to stop a student from staying at home fully.

Call

To keep distance education, it is needed that:

• Each class has a webcam so (sick) students can join the class from home. Provide this with a measure to support equipment and teacher training. Include this in the national standard for basic support.
• Each partnership tailored education has a support offer for distance education for students who stay at home. Make this part of the coverage in the region.
• Each student not enrolled at a school can use distance education as a (temporary) alternative. Make this possible by giving these students a budget to buy distance education.
• There are enough tools, personal guidance (buddy), and technical options to make distance education possible. This includes laptops for students who stay at home and cannot use the subsidy for devices now.
• Laws and rules are changed so distance education does not need exemption from duty of care or reduction of school time, but is seen as (temporary) education at another location.

Further development

For further development of distance education for students who stay at home, we need each other: parents, students, schools, partnerships tailored education, government and all others who work for students who stay at home and education. Let us together make sure that students who (regularly) do not go to school now and in the future can use this distance education, at home or another place, to keep contact with school and classmates.

Questions

For questions about tailored education, you can go to the theme page of Ouders & Onderwijs. If you have questions about tailored education, you can call on weekdays at 088-6050101 or email vraag@oudersenonderwijs.nl