The Sunday News
Charles Dube
WHERE to learners in face of the coronavirus pandemic? It is not all gloom, but follow expert advice on what to do.
Learners, I believe you have now understood the gravity of the situation we are in regarding this deadly pandemic — coronavirus or Covid -19. There is no better way to prevent it than following the correct guidelines proffered by the Ministry of Health and Child Care in their occasional updates. The seriousness of the disease is real and can be ignored at your own risk. As learners you are the right people to carry the correct message and give parents informed advice on the disease.
You have seen it as learners. Schools have had to close early so that people are kept at one place with minimum movement. While celebrating this indefinite school holiday, take care of yourselves. Be responsible and adhere to suggested means of fighting this deadly viral disease. It is a virus and as students I think you understand what that means. It does not have a cure at the moment. It has no vaccine and spreads very fast.
I thought that this might help some learners who might be taking this disease for granted. It is the in thing and nobody can avoid talking about it. The disease is wreaking havoc right across the globe and killing a lot of people. But we are advised not to panic, keep on believing and doing correct things related to hygiene. Many learners, especially examination classes are worried that this might affect their performance since it appears some chunk of their learning has been lost and will continue to be lost.
There is no denial of this but everybody is affected. This disease is a threat to human life. But, I believe all hope is not lost. Having learners at home does not mean that all learning has stopped. A learner who has been placed on the correct platform in preparation for the final examinations has a lot in their hands to do while in isolation at home. In these days of modern technology some learners will continue to learn through the internet. They can engage in group discussions through the internet as well as via WhatsApp.
Sadly though, a lot of learners out there in the rural areas cannot afford that. One hopes they made much while at school by making notes on those subjects involving a lot of literature. There is however, an unfortunate scenario which happens when learners are at school. They lack enthusiasm to read and write notes. Literature textbooks need to be thoroughly read and understood. To understand those texts learners need to write notes.
Teachers need to teach learners how to take notes from what they read. There is a tendency for some learners to just write down anything they are reading and at the end of the day they have loads and loads of useless books. Teachers’ guidance is necessary so that learners capture only the necessary information from what they read. This note taking skill can be better taught through the teaching of comprehension where the emphasis is on ignoring all that is irrelevant and address the needs of the question only.
Some learners can brag that we are candidates as we are writing final examinations this year, but the question remains — are you ready? You can get ready for examinations even from home. Many learners go to day schools and they are used to studying at home. Boarders have their roots at home and can adjust and be able to study as efficiently as at school. Design a proper study timetable and manage your time well for good results.
There could be a challenge for some learners to fully commit themselves to study at home because they do not have enough books. The first solution as alluded to earlier is make use of one’s notes. Some learners are lazy that they do not write their own notes but resort to borrowing from others. Unfortunately when it comes to such times where self-distancing is encouraged they are stuck. Each learner is using his or her notes. In any case I fail to understand how one can understand somebody else’s notes, as far as I am concerned notes are made according to one’s taste. I would not be comfortable when using my friend’s notes.
Some learners might be asking themselves questions like what do I study alone at home? This is simple — study all that is in your syllabus. Obviously you will come across challenging topics, reserve those for the future but cover a lot of ground on that which you can manage. There is no time to waste. Somebody once said: “Waste time now, tomorrow it will waste you.” The bottom line is to maximise the time you have.
If you are studying Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet you can work on the major characters — Romeo and Juliet, The Nurse, Friar Lawrence, Mercutio and others. There is a lot you can do in English Language as you find various exercises on language practice. You can do composition practice from simple sentence construction, paragraphing to full length essays. Expect more questions and exercise for examination classes where possible in the coming weeks.
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