A local child development expert is pleased with the return to in-class instruction for students in K-9 but expects better when it comes to online instruction.
David Philpott is a retired professor with MUN’s Faculty of Education and is a Research Associate with the Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development.
Philpott says the importance of in-class instruction for younger students can’t be overstated. He says it’s not just important from an academic perspective, but also in terms of social-emotional development.
Philpott says he’s not sure a lot of lessons have been learned from the COVID situation in terms of online instruction.
He says students in the online system have been subjected to minimal instruction and he’s calling on the English school board and NLTA to “step-up” and do better.
“We live in a city in which if your child was in a private school, they have full instructional days,” says Philpott.
He says students in the two private schools are connected with their teachers for five days, while in the public system they’re connected with their teachers for just one hour a day.
“I have friends who teach in Ontario – they’re teaching full, five-hour days online,” says Philpott, “that’s not the case” in Newfoundland and Labrador.
