INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION ON CHINA’S K-12 EDUCATION SYSTEM
After the revolution of 1949, China has done a great job on reaching 100% of literacy and gender equality in education. China offers 9-year compulsory education for Chinese citizens with government funds in elementary (5 or 6 years) and junior middle school (3 or 4 years) study. Although China K-12 education is a “walking on two legs strategy” – public school and private school systems, during the compulsory education, all schools need to use standard teaching materials chosen by the provincial education agency. During the high school period (grade 10-12), most students prepare for the “Gaokao” – National College Entrance Exam; a small group of students attend schools who offer international curriculums such as International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IB), A-Level, or AP programs to prepare to study in college oversees after completing high school education.
THE OUTBREAK OF COVID-19 IN WUHAN – CHINA
After the first four cases were reported on December 29 in Wuhan - Hubei Province, the outbreak quickly spread across all provinces of mainland China. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization acknowledged the alarming levels of spread and severity, and characterized the COVID-19 situation as a pandemic.
Timeline of the COVID-19 outbreak (CRS Report 2020)
CHANGE TO REMOTE LEARNING and CHALLENGES
The global spread of COVID-19 pandemic led to the emergency need for remote learning. School closure due to the coronavirus pandemic had impacted nearly 1.3 billion students worldwide. Countries around the world were moving quickly to fill the gap with a variety of distance learning options, including the use of advanced technology for real-time distance video teaching and the continuation of traditional distance education on radio and television. After the Chinese New Year in 2020, students were unable to go back to school for face-to-face classes. However, schools and students needed to keep the learning schedule. It seems the only choice was to go online although lack of proper preparation both for teachers and students. Within one or two months, different online platforms such as Dingtalk, Tencent, Zoom, Welink, classin, teams, etc. were offered to schools for online learning. In March 2020, the start of Spring semester, around 265 million K12 students in China learning online. About 55% of parents believed that online learning could prevent the pandemic further spread. Live streaming became the most popular and welcomed online teaching method (Tencent News).
Remoting learning encountered several challenges never seen before, including issues such as the availability of internet connection and devices for students in the disadvantaged background; lack of technology skills both for teachers and students to conduct and participate in digital learning; lack of proper interaction with instructors and lack of in class supervision and management and proper evaluation on the learning result. Many kids were easy to be distracted during the classes by video games or social media on their devices. Another great challenge is the health issue. Eye strain and headache occurred among students since they must join online classes in the morning and afternoon almost every day. Sitting before the computer longtime each day and lack of physical exercise, caused backbone issue and health concerns. Besides the physical problems, psychological problems such as depression, anxiety and tense relations with parents became major concern.
DIGITAL GAP IN REMOTE LEARNING and SOLUTIONS OFFERED DURING COVID-19
As the virus had turned online conveniences into daily necessities, the people, most of whom live in China’s mountainous regions, were cut off from their regular lives, especially when it comes to education. The gap between urban and rural educational resources has always existed, and it has been amplified in this "non-stop learning" policy that launched by central government across the country due to the pandemic. When "hardware" such as intelligent electronic devices and networks, as well as "software" such as lack of digital skills became indispensable basic educational resources, it was undoubtedly unfavorable for children in remote mountainous areas. Some families in the remote areas could not offer the smart phone or other devices for their children to take online classes; or one family with several kids only had one device, or they were not affordable or had no internet connections. This paper will focus on the digital gap in remote learning in mountainous areas during COVID-19. The situation impacted both the students and instructors, because similar to their students, the school teachers in mountainous areas especially those elderly ones were also lack of digital skills and proper facilities to conduct online teaching.
Fortunately, the Chinese government realized the digital gap on remote learning in mountainous areas and offered solutions from different government levels to private sectors.
A supporting plan was written into the guidance of "non-stop learning" during the epidemic by the Ministry of Education (MOE). The government investigated the network situation and coordinated with the telecommunications department to arrange network facilities. From February 17, 2020, China Education Television Channel 4 started to broadcast "Let’s Take Same Lesson", covering all grades of primary school and all provinces including autonomous regions and municipalities, especially areas with weak network signals or unreachable cable TV in remote rural areas. On February 29, the MOE in Guangdong Province said the local government had provided tablet computers to 9,262 ordinary high school and junior high school students in 2,277 relatively poor villages in Guangdong for online learning during the epidemic period. The MOE in Henan Province also mentioned that they would temporarily provide disadvantaged students and family online learning devices and reduced mobile phone data fees. In addition, some non-profit organizations and private enterprises had donated tablets and other necessary equipment for local schools and students in difficulty.
Different stakeholders offered solutions to reduce the digital gap in remote learning during COVID-19, however, there are still some circumstances need to be improved. Internet connection needs to cover all regions especially in mountainous areas, where students must climb to the top of mountains in order to get good signal for learning. The students in those regions also need more devices. Different provinces in China use different textbooks, the Education Chanel 4 broadcasting could not cover all the editions. However, the students in the mountainous areas without internet connection or sufficient devices, the TV program is an important alternative learning tool for them. In addition, the education TV program only provided classes in mandarin, it could not satisfy the different needs from 56 nations with different local dialects, especially in autonomous mountainous areas by the fact that they may only understand and speak their own dialects. In order to further improve the education TV program, it still needs a unified policy and funding plan from central to local government.
RECOMMENDATIONS
COVID-19 has significant impact on worldwide development and the efforts for reducing poverty. According to the Global Development Report, global economy grows -3.3% in 2020. Pandemic has greater influence on unskilled workers, or lower-skilled population, and widen the domestic inequality. In China, 73% of families in cities has internet connection, and in rural areas the percentage is 59% (CAC, 2022).
The central government needs to design a unified policy and a single strategic plan and implement through the local government agencies
The government needs to provide more internet connections in mountainous areas; meanwhile offers multimodal delivery system and enable the digital disconnected students have more choices. Effective implementation of the programs needs clear communication plans and to be adapted to the local needs. Regarding the shortage of devices, the government could launch a “used devices return” plan in major cities and distribute to the schools and students who need them. The devices would include smart phones and iPad as well as laptops. Deloitte's "2018 China Mobile Consumer Survey" report pointed out that in 2018, the smartphone ownership rate in China was as high as 96%. Of which, 58% of users replace mobile phones within 1-2 years, but only 12% of users would choose to sell their phones for recycling. China total population is above 1.4 billion, with a simple calculation, total 680 million used cell phones are available to recycle. The government could collect them with a small reimbursement to the owners and redistribute to the schools and students in need. Another essential plan is to implement delivery systems following a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach to effectively reach a diverse student population. China has 56 ethnic groups speaking over 80 local dialects, their individual needs should to be considered in remote learning process, especially the minority population in the mountainous areas. To implement the UDL plan, the government should continue to provide enough funding and support to the Education TV Channel 4 program - "Let’s Take Same Lesson", and broadcast on TV and social media about program schedule and learning activities and make sure the disconnected group of students could be reached by a task force. With enough funding, the TV program can launch more series with different edition of textbooks, and add sign language. Local governments distribute self-study materials to vulnerable students; and arrange radio learning programs broadcast in mandarin and other major local languages.
In order to eliminate the digital gap and enhance technology skills for the instructors teaching in mountainous regions, the government could offer sustainable professional development plan to better equip them with more confidence and skills to prepare digital instruction materials and teaching methods as well as digital information literacy skills. A remote coaching program also helps teachers to get individual help during training and practice, a general remote teaching guidance is a supplemental teaching tool.
Enhance International and non-governmental cooperation
The root course of digital gap in remote learning is the gap of wealth. To enhance international cooperation with other countries and international organizations are the fundamental approach to solve the wealth disparity. It includes to involve different stakeholders to increase the investment and reduce the poverty and make best use of government financial and social resources. Poverty reduction also requires a systematic and sustainable strategy of policies, implementation, and funding plans in the context of social environment. It needs central government’s commitment and coordination with different levels of local governments, as well as non-government stakeholders.
CONCLUSION
The coronavirus deepened education’s digital gap. Many rural students were lack the internet connection or equipment to learn remotely in China, especially children living in the mountainous areas. Between 56 million and 80 million people in China reported lacking either an internet connection or a web-enabled device, another 480 million people said they did not go online simply because they didn’t know how (2019). The central government has made great efforts to narrow the digital gap by establishing more base stations and implementing funding plans to support digital education in rural areas, starting all-day TV broadcasts of state-approved lessons in math, language, English, art and even physical education. Chinese government also works with the United Nations (UN) for global development, to address specific development challenges faced by vulnerable populations. With the principle of Leaving No One Behind, digital education is also included in the 2030 Global Development Initiative (GDI) jointly announced by China and the UN.
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