The coronavirus pandemic is reshaping education

Аннотация

COVID-19 is a disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus. This article is about the impact of COVID-19 on the education system of Uzbekistan. The article studies the role of COVID-19 as a catalyst for distance education in the current prevailing conditions. Keywords: pandemic, quarantine, education, system transformation, distance learning. In December 2019, the first cases of pneumonia of unknown origin were discovered among local residents associated with the local animal market, in Wuhan, China. On 31 December 2019, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) of an outbreak of unknown pneumonia. On 30 January, WHO recognized the outbreak of the new coronavirus as a public health emergency of international concern. On February 11, 2020, the disease was called the new coronavirus disease (COVID-2019). On 11 March 2020, WHO announced that the outbreak had become pandemic. As of June 22, 9 078 502 cases of infection were confirmed in 213 countries and territories, 471 248 fatalities, 4 861 784 people recovered. [1] The COVID-19 pandemic affected most countries of the world and almost all spheres of public life, and the education system was no exception. One of the ways to contain coronavirus infection is still social exclusion; its measures required the partial or complete closure of educational institutions and their associated infrastructure. Localization and social exclusion measures have led to shocks that the education system has not experienced since World War II. As a result, more than 1.5 billion students worldwide (91.3% of the total number of students) are cut off from their schools and universities. (Fig.1.) 126 Scientific research results in pandemic conditions (COVID-19) Fig. 1. Global monitoring of school closures caused by COVID-19. [7] School closures impact not only students, teachers, and families, but have far-reaching economic and societal consequences. School closures in response to the pandemic have shed light on various social and economic issues, including student debt, digital learning, food insecurity, and homelessness, as well as access to childcare, health care, housing, internet, and disability services. The impact was more severe for disadvantaged children and their families, causing interrupted learning, compromised nutrition, childcare problems, and consequent economic cost to families who could not work. In response to school closures, UNESCO recommended the use of distance learning programs and open educational applications and platforms that schools and teachers can use to reach learners remotely and limit the disruption of education. [2] The pandemic revealed the weakest place in the education system, based on the concept of “direct education”, in which teachers and students must be present in the same place at the same time. The only possible solution to this problem for most universities was the transition to distance learning. However, this solution led to another problem: the digital divide between universities, teachers and students. It turned out that a significant part of our universities do not have the necessary technical and educational base for going online. For example, according to Bloomberg Businessweek, even in the American higher education industry worth $ 600 billion and with experience in "emergency training" in connection with the hurricane 127 Scientific research results in pandemic conditions (COVID-19) Katrina in 2005, 70% of the 1.5 million teachers never taught virtual courses. [3] In Uzbekistan, after the detection of the first case of coronavirus infection, by decision of the Special Republican Commission from March 16, 2020, quarantine closed pre-school, secondary and higher educational institutions. Such an immediate reaction, especially at the very initial stage of the spread of the virus, is very effective and highly recommended by international experts. To mitigate the negative consequences of the spread of coronavirus, two packages of social and economic measures were approved by decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. A wide range of adopted directly relates to issues related to education. According to the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications Development of Uzbekistan for March 2020, the Republic of Uzbekistan ranks 96th in the overall ranking for Internet speed among 176 countries, and 133rd in terms of mobile Internet speed. In addition, according to the information portal «Datareportal», in 2020 only 55% of the population (18.34 million people) use the Internet. These numbers indirectly indicate that most students may have problems with the speed of the Internet. Moreover, even those who have access to the Internet are not always able to pay its cost. Thus, according to an analysis of experts from Picodi.com conducted in December 2019, Uzbekistan took 11th place among 62 countries in average Internet cost per 100 megabits per second (m / s). For comparison: in Uzbekistan, the cost o