Author: Klevis Paloka
The first to complain are the parents. Online learning due to the pandemic is not only a test for students, but it is now a real test for family heads. Many parents in larger cities have found a temporary solution. They have sent them to courses, but hundreds of others have no opportunity and have entrusted their children's education to virtual teaching.
And at this point Luigji, from Mamurrasi, talks non-stop and lists a series of problems. He has three children, lives in Mamurras and often during these months he felt not good enough to help the children to access the lesson. The 53-year-old counts the burden he passed on to him who sometimes sees himself as a teacher, for subjects he does not know.
"I can't meet the requirements with a computer or a phone for three children. Not a computer, not a phone each , " Luigji begins the conversation.
The eldest of the children attends secondary school. The other two are in 9-year school. Since December 1, 2020, when the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports decided that teaching in the pre-university system would alternate between school and online, Luigji is covered by pessimism day by day.
"Sometimes they find it impossible to attend online lessons because I am at work. This has affected their learning style, as they are forced to ask their classmates about the lessons they have done. As for the assignments, they usually do them after the teachers send the requests on WhatsApp. But even the assignments sometimes get sent late when I am at work. Another problem is the internet, since having three children in school requires a lot of internet and a simple offer of 14 thousand lek does not work and I am forced to add megabytes and a monthly offer costs me up to 30 thousand lek per month , " the head of the family summarizes for ACQJ.
But these are not problems discovered in recent months. From the announcement of the pandemic from March 2020 to June 2020, even now online learning has again shown problems in its operation. This is also shown by the report published by the World Bank, where Albania is described as one of the countries where the ratio of one computer per family is one in three.
“PISA 2018 data, although limited to secondary school students, provide an estimate of households’ readiness for online education. On average, one in ten households with students in the Western Balkans does not have a computer. In Albania, this figure increases by almost a third, to 28 percent. There is a large gap between ownership of ICT resources and their use for education , ” the World Bank report highlights.
The Albanian Center for Quality Journalism communicated with some high school students in different cities who show how difficult it is to attend an online class. The deadlock starts with access.
Alesia is a 10th grade student at the non-public high school "Rogacioniste" in the city of Lezha, and according to her, the problems start with aspects that are directly related to the basic conditions. Interruption of electricity from time to time leads to disconnection from the network and this situation has caused anxiety and further distraction.
"Problems with the internet, with the lights or with the technological devices we use sometimes cause problems in learning. The malfunctioning of the microphone, the camera, the turning off of the lights mainly during the cold days that have taken over the whole country are some of the most worrying problems," the minor clarifies.
Other difficulties follow with synchronizing with other family members.
"It's difficult in home conditions, as you have to manage relationships with family members, the camera and the microphone, you have to perform the right actions, at the right moments. You become an obstacle in the daily lives of family members".
What percentage does the student absorb from an online lesson? This leads to difficult communication and classroom management with many students, the 15-year-old being the third problem.
"In terms of the effectiveness of online learning, it cannot be compared to physical learning, as communication with each other and with the teacher is difficult , " explains Alesia.
As for the EB student at the "Arif Halil Sulaj" gymnasium in Mamurras, the lack of technological equipment is the first problem she encounters to access online learning.
"I never take online classes, because I don't have a phone or computer. My mom keeps the only phone we have at home with internet because she needs it for work," the 16-year-old says.
But most of those interviewed by ACQJ unanimously say the difficulty that each of them faces, regardless of whether one may have a computer, or the other may have one of the parents in the apartment. "It is very difficult, because we cannot understand the topics very well, there are some subjects that require a lot of exercises to be done in order to understand them ," emphasizes student LU from grade 11 at the Mamurras gymnasium.
So the president of this high school, Antigona Llozhi, puts the dots on the "I" and points her finger at the platform, then mentions the exception from the same access for students in rural areas.
"There have been quite a few problems with the malfunctioning of the akademi.al platform due to the load that occurs when online learning takes place. In our high school, in addition to students from the city, a significant part of them are from villages and sometimes it is noticed that they are unable to participate due to poor internet. Online learning has costs in the household economy, because many families have not had permanent access to the internet or suitable electronic devices and have been forced to make this expense so that their children can continue to attend classes just like their peers , " says Llozhi.
These difficulties also have a common denominator for the students of the high school "At Shtjefën Gjeçovi" in Laç.
Danger from illiteracy
The problem of learning has also been reported as a problem by the World Bank, which warns that with online learning, functional illiteracy risks increasing even more.
“Many students could fall back into functional illiteracy. All Western Balkan countries have a very high percentage (on average 53 percent) of students below basic proficiency, compared to around 23 percent in OECD countries. Assuming that students with lower scores will have deeper learning losses, the average number of students below basic proficiency in reading could increase from the current 53 percent to 61 percent. The policy implications of this result are considerable: it means that when schools reopen, more students may not reach the minimum expected level of proficiency for their age,” the World Bank report notes.
This alarm is also supported by the Independent Union of Albanian Education. In an interview for ACQJ, Nevrus Kaptelli, the president of this union, tells us the problems that are reported throughout Albania.
The first problem according to Kaptelli is the total non-functioning of the platforms where online learning takes place and the lack of internet or the necessary tools.
"The digital platform "Akademi.al" and other platforms that students are using in virtual classes do not function normally and are often blocked, as they cannot handle the load. A significant portion of students do not have the necessary tools and access to the internet to take online lessons. A significant number of students neglect to participate in lessons , " says Kaptelli.
Rural areas are the most vulnerable and at the same time the poor are at real risk to access virtual schooling as well as families with satisfactory economic opportunities.
"Rural areas present the most problems in the development of online learning, where students' access to the internet is limited. Some families have more than one child in school and do not have digital tools for each of them. Some teachers and many Albanian families with children in school face the economic inability to afford the costs of online learning. Many families live in survival conditions, where their only monthly income is the economic assistance they receive from the municipalities , " concludes the head of the Education Union.
According to the World Bank, due to distance learning (online learning), the achievement gap between the poorest and richest students will also increase: “The achievement gap between the poorest and richest students, which currently ranges from 1,5 years of schooling in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo to over 2 years in North Macedonia, is likely to increase further, as students in poverty are less likely to benefit from distance learning methods . ”
It's not just the platform's fault
The pandemic continues to affect all areas of life. And one of them is the teaching that is being followed with reduced hours and further at a distance. But according to Dean Çelaj, who was the person who developed the Akademi.al platform, the problems are due to the high number of users. According to Çelaj, the lack of information on the part of teachers and students leads to the recently curved confusion.
"The main problem has come as a result of the influx. Our platform has about 20,000,000 clicks per month and the activities carried out there are heavy on the server such as watching videos, live meetings, exchanging assignments. Teachers and students have not all been trained to use the platform. Many things that seem to them to be problems actually come as a result of a lack of information , " insists Çela.
As for the areas that have more problems, Çelaj emphasizes that due to privacy, no information is available on this issue.
"We do not have this information because the data we receive from students and teachers is minimal to protect privacy and personal data , " concludes the 23-year-old who graduated from "University College London" with a scholarship from the "Excellence Fund" from the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth.
