Letter from a parent to Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills
I am writing to request a discussion regarding the return to face-to-face teaching for all lectures, tutorials and seminars in Scottish universities.
It is my understanding that the institutions and, to a large extent, the lecturers are keen for a return to teaching in person. Indeed, there has been a small shift to face-to-face contact (one hour per subject per week in my daughter’s case totalling three hours per week) with the rest online lectures of variable quality. Are unions therefore using government guidance to thwart a return? Is it not time for the Scottish Government to change direction on this guidance?
Results from the poll conducted by the Student Futures Commission in May of this year makes for interesting reading and certainly chimes with my daughter’s experience: nearly four out of five students reported a negative effect on their mental health from their experiences last year of online learning, with almost a quarter saying it has had a very negative impact; some 63 per cent of university students believed they were below where they would expect to be academically; many did want to maintain some form of blended learning (around one or two hours per week maximum of online learning was considered ideal).
I have listened to one of my daughter’s lectures: it sounded like it had been recorded in a bathroom there was so much reverberation; was slide after monotonous slide with not even a video of the lecturer himself talking. Whist this is a ‘quality’ issue for Head of School, it highlights the poor alternative of online learning.
Those of us parents who were lucky enough to go to university know that being back to university in full is much more than just being engaged by a human being at the front of a lecture hall: being back on campus encapsulates other important aspects both social and academic. Most of us cannot understand the mixed messages surrounding COVID restrictions: most people are doubly vaccinated, boosters are now underway and people are mixing in a myriad of places with minimal restrictions such as theatres, cinemas and other entertainment venues.
Are lecturers and their institutions going to face the same backlash GP’s have encountered recently? Ulster University amongst others has returned to face-to-face learning. Why should our young people not be given the same opportunity?
I hope you are able to fully discuss this issue and provide parents and students with some hope that this situation will be rectified.
Ruth Box