Schools provide families, communities and entire economies with structure and support. Primarily, it is known to all that good teaching requires a teacher to be present in the classroom with his/ her students.  Most teachers enjoy their profession teaching in person because this gives them an opportunity to interact and engage with students with passion and enthusiasm.

Teachers also know when they teach in a classroom, they do not leave students to play with their own devices.  They want to be actively involved in the students’ learning process, engaging in classroom activities. Most teachers come to class early to set up for class. Teachers also prefer to take this opportunity to get to know individual students, talking one-on-one and interacting with a student who may need extra support.

Since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on the learning community worldwide significantly. The coronavirus epidemic has also affected the daily lives of those across the globe. Schools have been closed after the Governments have put their countries in lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.

“The speed and scale of the educational tumult caused by COVID-19 has impacted around 300 million students globally, the United Nations said that this has little parallel in modern history.”¹ The effect on education globally will last for several weeks, months and may even be a year. Eventually this will result in unforeseen consequences for the students and the society at large.

In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, academic institutions have turned to conducting lessons online. To facilitate ease and continuity of learning, the MDIS School of Languages and Education has invested in “Zoom” to launch its online training to schools in China, Vietnam and other countries.  Lecturers are also being trained to deliver the programmes to support overseas students’ learning just as they would in a campus-based classroom.

¹ ‘When Can We Go to School?’ Nearly 300 Million Children Are …