Former lecturer: More needed to address impact of learning loss due to Covid-19

0

A screengrab in Zoom shows Gill speaking at the online event.

KUCHING (Oct 15): More collaborative efforts between the relevant government departments, civil societies and the communities are needed to address the impacts on learning loss among children in Sarawak due to the Covid-19 pandemic, said Gill Raja, a former lecturer in social work from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas).

“One of the strengths of Sarawak is its sense of community and working together, and I think that we really have to build more of such collaborative effort at different levels (in terms of) sub-district, district, divisional and state levels.

“We will need local information quickly. We need to be able to get relevant data especially at the sub-district level,” she said at a public talk on ‘Leaving No Child Behind After Covid-19 School Lockdown – Addressing the Challenges in Sarawak’ Friday.

She also said there is a need to provide support to pre-schools as well as early intervention programmes in schools.

She said more people were also needed to assist schools in addressing the issue, and as such, finding those people willing to help requires a creative approach.

“I have this feeling that we will have lots of young people who may not find it so easy to go to Form 6, to what they were going to do (after that), or coming out of a university and can’t find jobs immediately.

“We can get them helping (at the schools) in their own areas because they know the culture,  they know the children, they probably come from the (same) schools.  Also, they get work experience useful to go forward in their lives.

“Then, we may have some retired people willing to help as well. This could be done in short-term contracts. We’re talking about a year-to-year basis, as the teachers (in the schools) need all the support,” she added.

The public talk was organised by Sarawak Development Institute (SDI) conducted online via Zoom application.