COVID-19 has taught us much over the past year about ourselves and our nation. One of the insights we have gained from an education perspective is that there is a clear difference between schooling and educating.
We now know that education occurs not only when students are "in school", for learning can, and does, take place everywhere. Covid-19 has shown us that one can get an education outside of a school building.
So, if schooling is not what drives education, what does? What has Covid-19 taught us about the essence of quality education and how can we build on this when students return to the classroom?
During Covid-19, much of the discourse on education has been on the switch to online learning and the technological issues that accompanied it — hardware, software, accessibility and affordability, to name a few.
The core purpose remains to provide meaningful learning experiences by connecting students and teachers in creative ways. Whether it is student-centred learning, makerspace projects or video lectures, the student-teacher connection online matters, just as it does in traditional face-to-face learning.
A recent study by Universiti Putra Malaysia on teacher-student relationship found that both parties wanted — yet did not get — adequate time with one another — and that the better their relationship was with teachers, the more engaged students felt in school and the better they performed overall.
In academic parlance, this relationship is a core element of a healthy "school climate" but receives little attention from educational policymakers. In fact, the term "student-teacher relationship" cannot be found in Malaysia's Education Blueprint 2013-2025. Among the more than 200 pages of proposals, plans and figures, not once does the blueprint mention the "active ingredient" of a good education — student-teacher relationship.
Education is not a school building, nor does it occur solely within the school buildings. The basis of education is the web of adult relationships that children and youth find themselves in — parents and children, teachers and students, coaches and athletes, mentors and mentees, mursyid and murid.
Education was, and still is, grounded in relationships, or learning partnerships. A teacher from Sabah who participated in the UPM study shared how she successfully forged a learning partnership with her students online by focusing on creating more "relationship time".
She made the extra effort to check each of her students every day outside of class time. Sometimes, they just chatted, which helped the students to cope with the pressure and stress of learning online. While seemingly simple, it worked.
Since then, the online attendance in her class improved from an average of five to 21 out of 25 students. Quality relationships — care, concern, support, sharing and participation — lead to students becoming more engaged in learning, resulting in greater mutual trust and a stronger partnership for learning. Both sides become committed to the task.
Covid-19 has taught us that we do not really need schools to educate. Yes, schools provide a physical space dedicated to collective learning activities. But, unless schools are functioning like caring, supportive communities with both youth and adults engaged in the process, schools are simply vacuous and cold, that feel more like prisons than centres of enlightenment.
As students begin to return to school buildings, we must refocus our energies on creating a better school climate for them that allows adequate time and space to build teacher-student relationships.
A sense of connection is key for young people. As a twentysomething student of the local martial art Silat Seni Gayong in the United States back in the 1990s, I never forget what my Malay teacher told me about the philosophy of care and responsibility that the traditional silat teacher embodied — "The teacher is the parent when the parent is not present".
It resonated with my own experiences with great teachers and coaches. What good is technical knowledge if it is not delivered with an intention and within a setting designed to cultivate unconditional love and dedication to students' wellbeing and development?
Furthermore, what would a school climate shaped by these values, where teachers are allotted the time to exercise them, be like? What kind of changes in fundamental human character would we see in our students?
In sum, how would it translate into a more meaningful education — and better outcomes — for our children? The research on this is pretty clear. Maybe it's time to put it into practice.
The writer is a professor at Department of Professional Development and Continuing Education, Faculty of Educational Studies, UPM