Tshultrim Dorji1* and Sonam Gyeltshen2
1Principal at Samtse Higher Secondary School Under Samtse Dzongkhag, Bhutan
2Vice Principal at Samtse Higher Secondary School, Bhutan
*Corresponding Author: Tshultrim Dorji, Principal at Samtse Higher Secondary School Under Samtse Dzongkhag, Bhutan.
Received: September 06, 2021; Published: October 11, 2021
Citation: Tshultrim Dorji and Sonam Gyeltshen. “Situational Analysis on Remote Learning Amidst COVID 19 Pandemic: A Case of Samtse Higher Secondary School”. Acta Scientific Paediatrics 4.11 (2021): 18-29.
This paper is a case study of Samtse Higher Secondary School to study the impact of the covid-19 pandemic in the school during the year 2020 academic session. The study will assess and evaluate how the school performed in both academic and non-academic by its student and how it was affected by the pandemic in particularly the student learning performance. The paper is a situational analysis of the school remote learning amidst the covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of the paper is to see the relationship of the remote learning with normal learning situation in terms of its efficacy in quality learning of the student. Furthermore, it is also an attempt to understand the school’s strength, weakness, threat and opportunities vis-à-vis the current state of situation and to chart a way forward map for the school to address any short coming due to challenges imposed by the external factors such as this pandemic situation.
For instance, the post 2019, the school saw decreased academic performance and also experienced increased frequency of student staying absent in 2020 year as compared to previous year. The school also experienced increased number of dropout rate of students in 2020 year. There were 13 students who drop out of the school in 2020 academic session which is 2.29% (n = 566 in 2020) which is very alarming figure. Besides, pass percentage of student in class 9 and 11 combined together was just 90.9% which was less than 4.9% as against the pass percentage in year 2019.
Thus, the paper reveals that the intervention such as remote learning strategy during the time of pandemic in 2020 year did not effectively replace the normal classroom teaching learning in terms of its efficacy. The recommendation and the strategy provided through this situational analysis may help to bridge the learning gap and help achieve the overall school goal without compromising the quality standards and delivery of educational services.
Keywords: Covid-19; Remote Learning; Chemistry
Samtse Higher secondary school is a day school. There were 566 students studying in class 9 till class 12 in the year 2020 when the school experienced serious disruption due to covid-19 pandemic. The school currently offers all three streams in class 11 and 12. The streams offered by the school are Arts, Commerce and Science in class 11 and 12. For class 9 to 10 the school offers general subject like English, Dzongkha, Math, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, IT, Economic and environmental science.
There are currently forty-seven staff working in the schools. The following table reflects the staff composition of the school as of year 2021.
Table 1: Staff composition of the school as of 2021.
There are 32 teachers against 566 students. The ratio of the teachers to students is 1:17. However, in the real practical sense the above average does not apply to all the class. There is a variation in the class strength at different level.
In 2020, the total number of enrolled was 566 in the beginning of the academic session. The number of students was less by 152 as compared to year 2019 academic session.
Figure 1: Grade wise statistics of the school.
Figure 2: Pie-chart showing the percentage distribution of
instructional day for year 2020 academic session.
Source: School student logbook attendance, 2020 academic
session.
In 2020 academic year, the number of instructional days available to school was 54.4% only as compared to 100% of normal classroom teaching available to year 2019. The school lost 82 days (n = 180 days is the total required instructional day as per MoE) of instructional period to covid-19 lockdown.
The figure 3 shows the school organizational structure and how the school function at different level.
Figure 3
The performance of the student of class 9 and 11 appearing home examination was 90.9% in 2020. It was in the year 2020 that the school was severely affected by covid-19 pandemic frequently due to which the school had to be closed for more than 98 days (source: school attendance record). There was a decreased in pass percentage by 4.2% when compared to the performance of the student in pass percentage of year 2019 when the school was running in normal situations.
Moreover, the school also experienced other problem associated with covid-19 situation in the year 2020, such as increased number of students dropping out of the school. The increased rate of truancy of the student was also observed in the year 2020.
The aim of the study is to assess the impact of covid-19 pandemic in students learning outcome for the year 2020 and assess other associated problems. The study is to determine how effectively the student were engaged in the remote learning and explore the various strategy the school used to provide adequate learning opportunities in both academic and non-academic areas of student development. Furthermore, the paper will also give an opportunity to explore its strength, weakness, threat and opportunity that would be used to formulate the future roadmap of the school.
The smooth functioning of the school amidst the covid-19 pandemic has become very challenging and difficult. Due to the pandemic, there are difficulties in providing smooth and effective online lesson due to disparities amongst student’s accessibilities to mobile phones, BBS TV, and internet connections. Furthermore, the lack of seriousness amongst students in remote learning and poor parental monitoring system is a concern. And because of the frequent lockdown, students’ overall wellbeing is at risk since prevalence of psychosocial issues owing to covid-19 situations, such as academic stress and anxiety in students are common. Electronic gadgets are not serving the intended purpose for academic learning but rather being misused. It is more of a distraction for some of our students. We are also unable to conduct programs and activities such as games, cultural, music. etc which are important for the holistic development of the students. Owing to strict covid-19 protocols, the school is unable to engaged parents and other stakeholders in the school developmental activities.
The school was close down frequently due to which substantial amount of normal classroom teaching and opportunities to conduct various learning activities could not be conducted as required.
The student could not perform very well in home examination (class 9 and 11 exam is conducted by School) as well as in board examinations (Class 10 and 12 appeared external examination conducted by BCSEA). Furthermore, the school witness the highest irregularities of attendance and dropout rate of the students.
The scope of this study is that, it provides an opportunity for the stakeholders to understand and assess the impact of covid-19 situation in the context of our school. This study will also help to analyze the issues and challenges faced by the school in actualizing the educational goal.
The study will enable us to understand the situation and assist to come up with the recommendation that will address issues related to both academic and non-academic areas. It also provides a doable strategy to be implement to ensure that the school meets its standard in terms of student academic achievement.
However, this study also comes with limitation. Owing to limited time available to us, the data and information and the record available to us could not be used adequately for our analysis that would enrich our study. Furthermore, also due to lack of other resources such as expertise in the field of undertaking such Endeavour there may arise use of tool which might not have done proper justice to the paper.
Situational Analysis is defined as a process that helps in identifying opportunities and challenges, both internal and external to organization (service or product). This can also be used to define the scope of a problem [1].
In another literature regarding the use of situational analysis in schools; situational analysis is an authentic and rigorous assessment of the school current state and is used to inform schools improvement journey in learning, teaching and leading. It is a key component of the school excellence cycle and is an essential step in the development of a strategic improvement plan (SIP) that will effectively prioritized school’s identified areas for growth. Conducting a situational analysis allows school to develop a rich and highly contextualized understanding of school current affairs. As part of this situational analysis, every school collects qualitative and quantitative data, collates evidence, collaborates widely and engages with research. The process outline is suggested option available to schools. Through a process of “looking inward’, ‘looking outward’ and ‘looking forward’, a situational analysis answers question: “where are we now?’ “Where do we want to be?’ “How good can we be?’ [2].
What is remote learning? As suggested, it is where the student and the educator, or information source, are not physically present in a traditional classroom environment. In this the information is relayed through technology, such as discussion boards, video conferencing, and online assessments. In other words, remote learning can occur synchronously with real time peer –to- peer interaction and collaboration, or asynchronously, with self –paced learning activities that take place independently of the instructor. In addition, remote learning refers to educational activities that have a variety of formats and methods, most of which take place online. There are a number of online options available for communicating with students, collecting assignments, and distributing education material [3].
Therefore, the question which is very pertinent to the study is “How has the covid-19 pandemic changed the education in an around the world?” not only concerning the Bhutanese school system being no exceptions.
The covid-19 has resulted in schools shut down all across the world. The world around had over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom [4]. This has resulted a dramatic changed in education with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. The same study suggests that the online learning had been shown to increase retention of information, and take less time, meaning the changes coronavirus have caused might be here to stay [4]. Due to differences in the covid-19 infection rate in different countries worldwide, there are currently more than 1.2 billion children in 186 countries affected by school closures due to the pandemic. In Denmark, children up to the age of 11 are returning to nurseries and schools after initially closing on 12 marches, but in South Korea students are responding to roll calls from their teachers online [4].
How has the experience been in terms of the success of remote learning for the school children? Has the remote learning been effective? As per the report by the WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM – kids learn better in class than when studying from home, as per the findings of the teacher survey. The finding reports that online schooling was marked 5 out of 10 for effectiveness, some students have a learning delay of around three months, and those from poorer backgrounds are falling further behind. The report as per the survey of more than 2,500 teachers in eight countries, which was carried out in October/November 2020, there was one thing everyone seemed to agree on- online learning is not as effective as classroom –based teaching. Overall, therefore remote schooling scored just five out of 10, according to a McKinsey &Co report, Teacher Survey: Learning Loss is Global-and significant. McKinsey’s researchers asked teachers to rank the effectiveness of remote learning on a scale of 1-10, based on their experiences during the first few months of the pandemic [4].
Bhutan being no exception – as per reports by Karen Lee, in her studies (Centre for strategies and international studies, CSIS) the most prominent impact of the pandemic on the youth globally has been on the disruption of the education. And moreover, the countries in South east Asia have observed negative and prolonged effects on child labor, underage marriage and malnutrition. According to the same report, as per the findings of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) it has been estimated that learning losses from school closures in developing Asia have added up to whopping amount of $1.25trillion as of April 2021. The report even further goes on to say that the countries like Myanmar and the Philippines have reported the longest full closures in the region even exceeding 200days [5].
Thanks to the visionary leadership and proactive approach of our King and the Royal Government of Bhutan, despite facing similar vulnerabilities, Bhutan has been very fortunate to reap the benefits from warding such eventualities given the same nature of risk exposed. In similar cases in India, the entire country was under lockdown since 23 March 2020 to contain the spread of the virus, all educational institutions were closed. So, to ameliorate the risk of loss in instructional opportunities for the country’s children, the Indian Government invested a deliberate effort to enhance the digital learning and online learning resource were made available on a range of platforms; for remote localities, resources were delivered through television and radio.
Even in the case of Bhutan, when the first lockdown was imposed which got prolonged leading to the closure of schools, the ministry of education came up with the alternative to reach out to all the students through various means and methods like BBS television, radio and school instructional materials (SIM)based on prioritized curriculum.
Thus, owing to the prevalence of the pandemic and the intervention such as remote learning having shown its effectiveness due to various internal and external factors, the situational analysis study is being undertaken to assess the degree of the problem and then suggest the measures that may help the school to improve the learning outcome even if the pandemic is here to stay and live along with.
The research strategy employed in this study is a case study method which is based on the phenomenon (Pandemic situation) within its context [6]. This case study will see the relationship of remote learning effectiveness with the normal classroom teaching situation by evaluating and assessing the student’s learning outcome in two situations broadly and also see the relationship with other aspect that are detrimental in influencing the learning outcome of the student. Therefore, this paper is embedded case study with holistic approach.
Since this case study is a situational analysis of the school, therefore- the approach is first to scan the school environment and then do SWOT analysis.
566 students studying in classes 9 to 12 will participate in survey to collect relevant information on student access to various electronic gadgets (Smart phone, Smart TV, BBS connection).
Administer the survey of student with regard to their accessibility to various electronic gadgets, internet connection etc. The information will be used to interpret and analyzed to assess and understand the situation. SWOT analysis of the school will be done alongside.
In order to determine whether the use of remote learning strategy was effective for the student performance in the exam, the comparative study of the student performance in the examination for two years (2019 – when there was no pandemic) and (2020- during pandemic situation) in pass percentage gap for class 9 and 11 home examination was used for analysis.
Similarly, to determine the relationship of remote learning in student academic performance for student appearing board examination- separate technique was used for analysis. The subject mean mark score of the student of class 12 will be used. The student mean mark score in subject will be compared with the national mean marks to determine the academic performance and gap.
Samtse Higher Secondary school is a day school. The total number of students in year 2020 was 566 (male = 253 and female = 313). However, the total enrollment of the student in the subsequent year dwindled to 543(Male = 274, Female = 269). The dropout rate was 4% (Baseline 2020). The school experienced disruption from the beginning of academic year 2020. The school had to be closed for more than 90 days due to lockdown affecting the normal classroom teaching. The school conducted online google class and used other social media platform to teach. Before undertaking the remote learning/distance learning through online platform the school conducted a survey to assess the situation to know how many of the student have access to electronic gadgets, smart phone, internet connectivity, access to Television etc. The survey was carried out on 11th March 2020, to help school administration to create “google classroom” and other social media platform as a part of ‘Education in Emergency’.
In 2019, there were 265 students who appearing annual exam conducted by school (Internal home examination). Out of which 252 (Both boys and Girls) passed which is 95.1%. However, in the subsequent year in 2020- the pass percentages drop to 90.9% which is 4.2% less than 2019 academic results.
Table 2: Comparative study of pass percentage between 2019 and 2020.
Source: School annual result examination -2019 and 2020
In 2020 external board examination, a total of 108 student appeared the exam. The students have performed relatively well in nine subjects as compared to the national mean mark as shown in the figure 4.
However, the student did not well in four subjects such as mathematics, Physics, chemistry and Business mathematic. The performance of mathematics was very poor compared to national mean mark.
Figure 4: Graph showing the mean marks between national
and the school in 2020 BHSEC examination.
Source: BCSEA 2020 examination
Figure 5: Comparing the mean marks of school and national mean mark in 2020 of class 12 students.
Similar, the situation of student academic performance of class 10(BCSE) in year 2019 when compared to year 2020 showed that the performance wise of student in year 2019 was better than year 2020. In 2019, the overall mean score of for all 139 students in English and best four was 68.8 whereas the overall mean score of 132 student who appeared in 2020 year was 63.5 all suggesting that the academic performance score of students in normal times was much better as against the academic performance score of year 2020.
Analysis of the survey data which was conducted on 11th March, 2020 to find out about the electronic gadgets that the student use for communication.
The survey was conducted to help the school to create “google classroom” during emergencies to provide remote learning platform. However, the data suggest important facts that was detrimental in influencing the success of remote learning.
Figure 6: Pie chart showing student having access to personal
mobile (Smart Phone)/Tablet.
Source: School IT department, 2020.
The above figure shows that only 68 percent of the students have accessed to mobile phone and the rest 30.6 percent do not have access. This is the gap which the school needed to address and reach out.
In the table 3, the percentage of students whose parents have mobile were 96.4% which was very encouraging for the school to help and reach out those who do not possess personal mobile phone while conducting online lesson and learning assessment of the students.
Table 3: Parent/Guardian having Smart phone.
Sources: (School IT department, 2020).
The number of students having access to laptop was less than 50% and more than half the student do not own any laptop.
Figure 7: Bar chart showing Students having access to computer or Laptop at home.
Source: School IT department, 2020 student survey
Ministry of education also initiated program to provide learning lesson through Television program. Therefore, for those students having internet connectivity issues and who cannot take part in online lesson class- they have the alternative to attend the class via BBS television telecast across the nation. This cover 88 Percent of student provided that they have BBS connection. Table 4 gives the information about student having TV screen and figure 8 showing the information about student having BBS connections.
Figure 8: Column graph showing the percentage of student
having access to BBS connection at home.
Source: School IT department survey findings-2020.
Table 4: Students having TV screen at Home.
Source: School IT department, 2020.
The following are the strength of the school.
Using the strategic planning Toolkit by Janet Shapiro (email:toolkits@civicus.org) [8] - the framework shown in figure 9 showing the strategic planning process will be adopted to guide the school.
Figure 9: Strategic planning.
Source: Strategic Planning Toolkit by Janet Shapiro (Shapiro,
Strategic Planning Toolkit, 1996) 28.
The school aspires to be a model institution of excellence in the delivery of quality education.
The mission of the school is to endeavor for the production of responsive, dedicated and competent citizens of the nation through the delivery of quality and meaningful educations. The school shall therefore;
The school believes in team work, punctuality, excellence, participation, accountability, commitment, respect, initiative, transparency, sincerity, responsibility, equity, efficiency, integrity, cooperation and democracy [7].
The overall goal of the school as per the framework suggested by Janet Shapiro is the achieving of the goal which was hampered by problem that we have identified. In this case study the overall goal of the school therefore shall be to bridge the learning gap of the students and improve the learning outcome both in Home examination as well as student appearing in board examination. The overall goal is to significantly increase the number of student passing in examination to 100% and for class 12- they should be able to absorb in higher institutes and colleges.
The remote learning provided through online class is not effective. Student are not able to perform well in their studies. There is a gap in the learning outcomes. The number of student staying absent is increasing. There is increased rate of drop out owing to various reasons that is associated with covid-19 pandemic.
The immediate objective of the school is to address the cause of the problem [8]. The main cause of the problem identified is covid-19 situation which disrupted the school and therefore, since the remote learning was not as effective, the school immediate objective would be to address the issues of remote learning. Therefore, the immediate objective of the school are:
As per the Janet Shapiro framework, the key result areas define the outputs that are needed to achieve the immediate objectives of a project. In this case, the school would focus in the following way:
Exercise for turning an immediate objective into key result areas requires action planning which is determining what the outputs are for and which the organization or project needs to plans. The action plan is identifying the activities that needs to be executed [9].
The tools that we can use here in this case are Gap analysis. Once we have strategic plan, we will be in a position to structure the organization appropriately, identify where specific change management will be required, identify the problems, clarify where to next and when considering these issues, it is important to remember we have clear idea where to go [9].
The situational analysis of the school proposes the following recommendation for the New normal situations.
The study broadens and deepen the understanding about the importance of technology and its role in shaping the education system. The need of technology was never felt before than in the current situation. Its tremendous impact on learning and on life itself all over the world are obvious. The teachers and students realized that technology can be enabler in all its forms to sustain learning if used wisely. It has become powerful tool to create learning spaces for millions of school children giving a ray of hope during such difficult times. The technology has transcended physical, mental, social, emotional and spiritual sphere not only to school children but millions of adults too when all the physical and social activities weren’t allowed due to pandemic. Augmenting technology in teaching and learning process and various work place has become the norm for new normal. Technology now is increasingly use to augment our intelligence leading to various discoveries like massive online open courses (MOOCs), TED talks, Coursera, various meeting apps etc. The people have become more technologically literate and widely use for the benefit of the society. However, from the study, technology (remote learning) is not a best option for effective teaching and learning process due to its various shortcoming. The student’s performance both in home and board exam (2020) has declined comparing to the past years (SHSS result analysis).
The study opened doors to explore opportunity and options available for the school based on the SWOT analysis and also to manage the impact of covid pandemic cautiously. Most importantly when millions of people have to choose between life and death due to pandemic, we are safe and secure because of our visionary and selfless leadership of our beloved His Majesty the king of Bhutan. Despite the resource constrain and many other challenges the country faces, he is the epitome of a brave warrior against the unseen enemy and ray of hope and peace for rest of the world during such an unpredictable times.
We would like to thank Dr.Ganeshman Gurung (PhD, Assessment in Education) for his valuable insight and comment without which the writing of this paper would not have been possible. We are very grateful for his accommodating gesture and patience shown for us to complete this project. We are also grateful for Rinzin Dorji, vice principal of Samtse HSS for sharing his views and valuable suggestion. We would also like to acknowledge everyone who have been very supportive and cooperative throughout our research process.
Copyright: © 2021 Tshultrim Dorji and Sonam Gyeltshen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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