While first world countries around the world were able to continue their education despite the pandemic using technology, it was the conflict ridden areas that were hit drastically. People living in these areas do not have any access to internet thus making them unaware of the current affairs as well as leaving them with no means to continue their education. The education sector in countries like Iraq, Sudan, Syria and etc suffered substantially, impacting both students and the teachers. Upon research for a presentation in this course, my team member and I came across various reports that covered how the teachers have been suffering a lot since they had to lose on their employment as well as their passion. In these countries education was already secondary but due to Covid-19 it has been further deprioritized. The slides attached below show evidence of how these teachers have been helpless since a year now and how the education sector in these countries might take years to get back to its usual pace.


An example closer to home can perhaps be educational institutes in rural areas of Pakistan. Educational progress of students has been hindered by school closures in most of the villages near my hometown, Mirpurkhas. Although they may not qualify as conflict zones, teachers and students had to face prolonged delays because of lack of resources. Neither the teachers could adapt in an online setting nor the students had the required gadgets. This makes me wonder how different our experiences can be and why lockdowns/school-closure needs to take into account such varying degrees of adaptability.
This article made me think of something I had not really paid attention to;how does Covid effect the lives of people living in actual war-zones? I understand that these teachers might feel much more physically threatened by bullets and bombs than the coronavirus. I don't think the corona virus would make much of a different in active warzones. As education is already being disrputed. I mean isn't it silly to think that a variant of the common cold could completely disrupt the education system of Syria while a full blown proxy war could only partially? Was this the straw that broke the camel's back?
Thank you for sharing this! When we talk about the impact of Covid on education, we often ignore the impact it has had on teachers. A research done by the Sutton trust in UK stated that more than 60% of their state-school teachers struggled to keep with the online mode of education during Covid, either because they did not have the proper technology/gadgets or because they couldn't operate these gadgets and apps. If things were so difficult for teachers in a first world country, one can only imagine how bad things were for teachers in developing nations or conflict-affected nations. I feel like the lockdown and online classes were even more difficult for female teachers, who had to look after…
Nice presentation! It is interesting yet heartfelt to note how much of the public debate is focused on the digital gap in the context of students, meaning that the difficulties faced by teachers on the ground are not given due emphasis. It is therefore, important for us to give voice to teachers' experiences, to appreciate what efforts they are making for students and to support them.
Fantastic presentation - it occurs to me that I haven't myself been as accommodating to my instructors, as I have expected them to be to me. For teachers, it truly must be so difficult trying to balance their own safety, the safety of the students and trying to give the maximum possible learning to the students. The psychological impact must be unparalleled, especially in an area that is victim to both conflict and COVID. I'd like to add that often in conflict-ridden areas, it is the motivation of the students to learn which in turn motivates teachers, especially in situations where they do not receive a lot of monetary benefits. But when you add COVID on top of it, even…