UNSHM’s Reaction to the Impact of COVID-19 on Secondary Education

Report / Analysis

As the representatives of school students in the country, we have been

advocating for quality access to education for more than 2 years. We strongly believe
that inclusive, and quality education shall be present in North Macedonia even in such
unexpected times. Thus, in addition we are highlighting some remarks and
recommendations for improving the distance learning.
UNESCO reports that 1.5 billion students have been affected by school closures
due to the COVID-19 outbreak, in 165 countries. This is more than 87 percent of all
registered students. “​The Coronavirus crisis has become an education crisis”1.

The government on March 11, has temporarily closed the schools as a pre-
measure to contain the spread of the COVID-19. We recall that this was a ​right
decision taken at the right time by the Minister of Education & Science, Mr. Arber
Ademi. ​Since March 11, Education in North Macedonia has shifted online but the
situation is far from being ideal.
While private college education institutions (e.g. ​Yahya Kemal, Maarif, Nova etc.)
were already largely using online platforms to deliver courses before the crisis, in
secondary education, distance learning platforms were not widely used or at least not to
the same extent. In North Macedonia, there is no standardisation and a lack of clear
guidelines from the Ministry of Education. ​This lack of framework and resources
leads to an extremely unequal situation that affects schools, teachers and most
importantly students and apprentices.
School closures are deepening ​inequalities ​and will have longer term
consequences ​- Those living in ​rural areas or with ​special learning needs are even
more affected.

1
​UNESCO, COVID-19 Educational Disruption and Response: https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse
 2

Large numbers of schools in North Macedonia do not include webcam classes

(e.g. Zoom, Skype, Google Meet etc) in their online curriculums but instead only utilize
Google Classroom, Edmodo, Viber and other platforms where they send the learning
material via PDF.form which also leads to ​inequalities​. There isn’t a unique national
platform for E-Learning in the country and many teachers use different platforms which
is confusing for students to have more than two platforms for learning. ​The use of
platforms owned by private actors can be a danger for the authentic public nature
of education, with still no clear consequences on the ownership of content and
on the data protection.

School students are under pressure and overworked.​ Teachers are

assigning lots of homework that school students have to handle often alone. This adds
to the stress the students are experiencing because of the pandemic roaming outside
and because of it they are unable to fully concentrate on the assigned homework. Not
all school students have access to the necessary equipment to handle their homework,
nor do they receive the same level of support at home, which also leads to ​inequalities.
It also has been stated by students that a large number of teachers do not respond or
comment on the students assignments & homeworks. From the beginning, our
movement stated and pointed out that it is ​against any forms of online examination
because it also leads to ​inequalities​ and ​unjust grading​.
Teachers are overwhelmed and denounce the lack of training​. Education
authorities should invest in developing the capacity of teachers by providing training to
help them adapt to their new teaching environment and develop their online teaching
skills. In North Macedonia, the past lack of investment on digitalisation makes it even
more complicated to effectively change methods and tools.

➔ Not all teachers and learners have the ​necessary financial means to
cover for the equipment needed to take part in the distance learning
process.
 3

Our government is not taking into consideration the psychological impact

of this crisis on teachers, students, apprentices and their families, particularly
considering the limitations of mental health services derived by the social
distancing measures. - There is a lot of uncertainty and lack of information which often
leads school students to feel a higher level of stress and anxiety. For example, in our
neighbour country, Kosovo there have been several suicidal cases from students since
the social distancing measures.

Thus, we call for action with the following recommendations when implementing
distance learning measures:
● Education must stay public and independent, ​so any form of monopoly
of a ​private online platform for lectures and assessment must be
avoided.​
● When choosing an online learning platform, ​educational authorities
should pay the utmost attention to learners with special needs and
provide inclusive learning alternatives.
● Students who don’t have access to the needed devices or to the
internet must be supported with concrete measures to fully include
them in the learning process.
● The Ministry of Education and Science should give schools clear
guidelines on the content that need to be taught online and on how
to conduct assessments in order to attain a certain level of
standardisation at least within a country and reduce the current
inequalities.
● A ​balance between digital learning activities and screen-free
activities needs to be found. Online classes may have an impact on
student’s health so it is important to provide non-digital learning materials.
● In a context of isolation, ​school institutions especially the mental
health counselors must prepare for a considerable increase in
cyberbullying and to implement all possible necessary measures to
 4

help prevent this phenomenon ​due to the fact that educational activities
are mainly taking place in an online setting​.
● Investments from the heads of education in our country should be
raised to accommodate appropriate adaptation of teachers in the new
learning environment.
● Education authorities should provide platforms for interaction
between teachers and students in order to keep alive the social aspect
of teaching and learning and minimise the negative impact of social
isolation on learners.
● Online collaborative platforms ​should also be set up ​to allow teachers
to share their resources and give and receive peer feedback.
● Any obliged changes in the evaluation methods must be considered as an
increased difficulty from the learner’s side too (e.g. moving from written
tests to oral exams via webcam) and ​students must never be penalised
for difficulties in adapting.
● For elementary school, ​public TV channels and radio stations have
been used to provide classes (e.g. Tv Klasa, ​Тв-Училница​)​. We found
this measure very interesting and effective as most families have access
to TV and radio, even in remote areas, and it does not require an extra
cost for students and their families. There's room for improvement on
public TV classes, especially on the time management aspect. ​This
measure could be implemented and be expanded for all levels of
secondary education, not only for elementary school.
● No decision about our future can be taken effectively without
including school students. Student organisations should be consulted in
all forms possible and cooperation between school actors in this moment
should be a top priority.
 5

● School Student Unions need to receive continuous support from

institutions and stakeholders ​to safeguard their activities and continue
contributing actively to our democratic society.
● North Macedonia should and must start to ​re-think about the education
system ​and be fully invested in creating a ​new vision for education in
​ his is important since a new
times of inevitable crisis or emergencies. T
outbreak is forecasted by the authorities at the start of autumn.

This crisis has directly shown us all flaws and shortcomings of the system in an
indirect manner - all of the points that students have been complaining and speaking up
about are being highlighted during this time. The situation itself stands as sufficient
proof towards the correctness of our claims. At the same time this crisis also gives us
the opportunity to rethink our schooling models and find new innovative methods of
teaching. Therefore, this whole situation opens the door for improving distance learning
to be more effective in the near future.

Fig.1. Design of Learning Process