ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — After months of virtual learning, many of the Kurdistan Region’s students, teachers and parents are fed up with the various methods used to teach pupils after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fifth-grader Yara Zryan attends a private school in Erbil. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, her classes have been held online this academic year.
While her mother tries to help her with school work, the student is falling behind. She says frequent electricity outages are the main hindrance to online learning
“Sometimes the teacher’s internet speed slows down and we all can’t hear him/her,” notes the student.
Students in the 12th grade will on Saturday return to Kurdistan Region schools that have been shut for months due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) spokesperson announced on Wednesday. Schools will reopen for other grades on March 1.
For some teachers, they say online learning prevents students from properly engaging during class time.
“Sometimes you have started the class and you see the student is lying down or has closed the camera and slept,” said teacher Sayran Karim. “There are students who are playing online games. Seriously, they are playing mobile games.”
As a student at a Kurdistan Region public school, sixth-grader Astera Hiwa does not have the engagement her private school peers have, only having access to pre-recorded lessons.
“I was unable to understand, because one teacher would not speak at all. And the other used to assign us material to learn at home,” said Astera. “Another one used to tell us to just rewrite the stuff.”
Schools were first closed in late February 2020, before coronavirus cases had been recorded in Iraq. They were reopened in mid-September for grade 12 students, and in October for students in grades one and two.
The cell decided to close schools again on November 1, due to a spike in cases of the virus. The closure was extended to January 7 by the crisis cell at the beginning of December.
Coronavirus case numbers in the Kurdistan Region have fallen in recent weeks.
Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed
