Penn Pandemic Diary Penn Pandemic Diary, Entry #31: The Importance of an Education

May 29, 2020
By Anonymous | Penn Pandemic Diary

Open your laptop. Get onto your email. Find that Zoom link your professor just sent out as a reminder. Click on it and log onto your online class. Sit and stare silently into the screen for an hour or so.

Despite the complaint that Zoom classes are not the same experience as going to schools or being on campus, online learning is a “privilege.” Many students in developed countries still receive high quality education from world-class teachers, scholars or speakers. Education is much more than attending classes or being on campus, and it is an opportunity to learn and see beyond ourselves, gaining a better understanding of all the intertwined global issues so that we could collaborate across regions to find alternative solutions that could overcome this pandemic together.

As a scholar who studied International Educational Development, I know this pandemic is a real challenge to students in vulnerable populations, including refugees, internal displaced persons, or migrants in developing countries. The current crisis has further exacerbated and widened the educational gap between the rich and the poor. According to United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO), more than 850 million children and youth, ranging from pre-schools to universities, are out of school. Most vulnerable students do not have the technological resources and capacities—whether Wi-Fi, computers, or laptops—for remote learning, while some heavily rely on radio or televisions to continue receiving basic lessons.

In some places, schools are probably the only safe physical environments for these vulnerable students. Thus, the closure of schools exposes young people to domestic violence, abuses, and/or family obligations and pressures. Even though international organizations like United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UNESCO, and the World Bank provided temporary aid to support these vulnerable students, more efforts and attentions are still needed to help these vulnerable groups recover from the “loss” of education during the pandemic.

Reflecting on my personal experience as a child refugee, I do understand the struggles and challenges of accessing and receiving education due to inadequate resources, capacities, and infrastructures. Even though I lived in a refugee camp in Thailand for 9 years, it is hard to imagine how this pandemic affects the daily life and educational opportunities of these vulnerable populations.

In the United States, we often take for granted of the resources and technological advances that we have. Yet improving education is central to development abroad, empower people to change their perceptions and build resiliency to cope with any number of challenges. By encouraging critical reflections on values, education recreates and reshapes community that can thrive and prosper after this pandemic. It will therefore be key to building a better world after COVID-19 recedes.

The views expressed in the Penn Pandemic Diary are solely the author’s and not those of Penn or Perry World House.