By Loo Jia Huey
There are mixed feelings over the government’s decision to reopen schools in October.
A few parents agree with the idea of sending their children back to school. They complain that their children are unable to concentrate while attending online classes. .
Others say that their children have adapted to online learning. It is more efficient during online classes, one of them said.
Tan Ling Ling, mother of a 9-year-old boy, complained that her son was frequently surfing the Internet while having online lessons, and he was therefore unable to concentrate on his school lessons.
“My son and I study and work in different rooms, and after work, whenever I asked him whether he had completed his homework, he would show me his activity books and, sure enough, the page would be filled with words,” Tan said. “Both my husband and I do not understand Chinese, so I could only assume that he had completed his assignments.”
It was not until one day, when Tan received a call from the class teacher, that she realised her son had rarely ever submitted his homework.
“This is when I discovered that he had mysteriously turned off his camera whenever he thought his teacher was not noticing,” she said. “I was shocked, because not only had I realized that the ‘words’ were just scribbles, I also found out that this meant my son was not paying attention in class.”
For that reason, she continued, she agrees with the decision to send her son to school, where he is able to interact with the teachers and avoid getting distracted with online games.
Meanwhile, not all parents agree with the reopening of schools. The biggest worry that most parents have is the risk of their children getting infected with COVID-19 when they return to school, This is especially when the number of cases are still hovering around 20,000 every day.
Billy Siow, whose 12-year-old attends SRK Taman Midah, said that her daughter is always very proactive during online classes and submits homework on time.
“Whenever my child needs to find out more information related to her assignments, she is able to find useful information posted on the Internet,” Siow said. “She tries not to get carried away by online advertisements. I observed that online learning is not only effective for my daughter, it is also a very safe option.”
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