A recent survey reveals that more than two thirds of children in Kenya (72%), who switched from remote learning due to the pandemic prefer in-person education. The survey titled “Digital education in COVID era” was conducted by Toluna (Online Market Intelligence) at the request of Kaspersky between April and May 2021.
According to the survey, 64% of the students complained about a lack of in-person communication with their peers between classes. 39% of the respondents also disliked learning online because of having to spend so much time in front of a screen. 58% complained of frequent technical problems. For 31% of students, it was more difficult to understand educational materials with remote learning compared to offline classes.
However, just less than a third of students, at 28%, noted that they liked remote learning better.
The required transition to remote learning during the pandemic has been a real challenge for children, parents and teachers, alike. Most probably distance learning will stay with us as a substitution for the usual classes to one extent or another,” notes David Emm, Principal Security Researcher at Kaspersky.
“Despite the fact that according to our research both – parents and children prefer offline learning rather than online, it’s important to introduce various digital and interactive elements into the educational process and improve digital literacy level of children and their parents, as well as teachers.”
The hardest subjects for children to learn remotely are the exact and natural sciences: mathematics (74%), chemistry (58%) and physics (46%). As for parents, 67% stated they don’t want to continue this learning format after the pandemic, and 25% noted a general decline in the quality of education as its main drawback.
