Students Around the World Return to School: What Can We Learn from Them?

As Masterman’s school year comes to an end, many schools around the world have already reopened. From New Zealand to Finland, high schoolers began returning to the classroom in early May with new protocols to control the coronavirus. Once again, Americans have been given a head start; the US has three precious months of summer break to learn from the schools of other nations.

With Philadelphia schools considering everything from an online fall semester to reduced-size classrooms, now would be the time to listen to the advice of students in Taiwan, Shanghai, New Zealand, Finland, Germany, and those in other countries who have already returned to the classroom: What works? What doesn’t work? Using social media and video chats, I reached out to eight high schoolers to hear what they had to say.

So What Works?

My six student respondents told me that in-person school—no matter how modified— was better than online school. Every student spoke positively of their return: the opportunity to have discussions, to ask questions, and to be held accountable for their work created a better education than they had received at home. Sonja, an eighth grader from Finland, told me that “it’s easier to get help from the teacher.” Barton, a 17-year-old from Shanghai, told me that “class is as great as ever,” even though physical closeness between students is banned, and no class has more than 10 students. Each school’s strategy was not without its limitations. But regardless, their educational quality and opportunity to interact with their peers was a massive improvement compared to the months they had spent in remote learning.

Here’s one strategy that works: for countries that failed to contain the virus (such as the United States), treating each grade level as a self-contained group appears to have limited the spread of the virus. Certain schools in Germany and Finland are limiting interactions between separate grade levels, but allowing more interaction within each class for academic and social reasons. Students are allowed to remove their masks within the classroom, have discussions, and speak with friends within their grade. Because these students take similar classes and share teachers, this containment strategy works well in eliminating contact with students in other grades. When possible, teachers change classes, instead of the students themselves, to limit the crowds in the hallways.

Minor changes in protocol also were found effective: no more assemblies with the entire student body in attendance; masks worn in the hallways and bathrooms, if not constantly; spaced-out arrangements of desks in classrooms; frequent hand-sanitizing and desk-wiping; altered hallway routes and school entrances to limit student interaction.

For teachers specifically, nearly every student asked that their instructors be understanding and flexible with school work, as many families continue to suffer from effects of the pandemic. Emma Hinman, of Nelson, New Zealand, thanked her teachers for “understanding of the situation we are in,” and for making flexible accommodations for deadlines and grading.

Here’s what doesn’t work so well: cutting class sizes. Lilliana, a junior living outside of Berlin, Germany, told me that her school has separated each class into two groups, so that one half is taught in a classroom of 50% occupancy, while the other half studies independently in an unsupervised room. But this policy has a major impact on her learning: she learns at half the rate, since each teacher must teach the same material to multiple, smaller groups. If a teacher taught three classes pre-pandemic, they now have six groups of students to instruct. As for the students assigned to independent study, “the majority is just waiting and does nothing.”

Strict vs. Loose Protocol

Students reported varied compliance with these new protocols. In New Zealand, early containment limited transmission, and now the country is beginning to re-open after nearly two weeks with no new cases. Students in New Zealand are hanging out with large groups of friends, “sharing food” in school, and traveling for fun. Zoë, an Eleventh grader from Wellington, told me that people are flying domestically in order to “catch a breather.” Olivia, from Auckland, told me her school’s only policy is to use hand sanitizer when entering and exiting the classroom, and that “[students] don’t even use the sanitizer half the time.” Her “teachers don’t really care [about the social distancing rules]… students are not complying [with the rules] because it’s not properly enforced.” It appears that New Zealand is both ahead of the curve in terms of case numbers, but is also more lax about enforcing social distancing guidelines. Indeed, Zoë said that “[life] is basically back to how it used to be.”

Other countries are not so lenient. In Shanghai, where just 536 cases have been reported in a city of over 24 million, schools are taking serious measures to prevent further spread. Barton told me that his and his classmates’ temperature is checked twice a day using infrared thermometers, and that they eat lunch with plastic screens separating students, among other measures. Taiwan is similarly strict, despite only 443 cases reported in the country since the beginning of the outbreak. Caroline, from Taipei, has her temperature taken twice a day, and students wear masks constantly, even in class. In her school, students are complying with social distancing. She notes that this protocol is not without its issues: some students “fall asleep” in class due to a lack of oxygen in face masks. But despite the extra protocol, both students felt that their educational quality was as good as it had been pre-pandemic.

Risk Tolerance

While countries such as New Zealand and Taiwan have succeeded in containing the virus, countries like Finland and Germany have not. America falls into this latter category; experts predict that despite containment measures, coronavirus will very much be present this fall.

So this leaves American educators weighing two values: that of education, and that of health. At what point must schools allow students to receive a quality education in person, albeit doing so risks exposure to their students and faculty? Finland, for one, has left this choice up to each student: those who are unable or unwilling to attend are not penalized for incomplete work, but those who are low-risk and wish to return are welcomed back to the classroom. Sonja's school practices the aforementioned isolated-grade strategy, and roughly half of her peers attend school because “some of them are at risk or their family/loved ones are at risk.” But though she “can’t interact with students in other classes,” her education is certainly better than online schooling. As Sonja told me, “[the return to school] has brought us closer. I feel like everyone’s getting along better now because they haven’t seen each other for a long time.”

Lessons Learned

The experiences of these foreign students prove that schools can indeed reopen, and that doing so helps students. Every single teenager I spoke to told me that some school was better than no school, no matter how modified. The ability to speak with teachers and classmates, if limited, was a massive improvement from their online learning.

Ultimately, the solution will not be perfect. And with budget cuts looming, it’s not clear that Philadelphia schools will be able to afford some of these measures implemented in global classrooms. Given the economic crisis, it is difficult to imagine paying for salaries, let alone infrared thermometers. Re-entering the classroom does not come without risk, or complications. But for these international students, it is a compromise worth making.