By: Cordero Johnson
Educating Our Children in Times of Crisis
When classrooms are forced to close in moments of crisis, how well can we truly educate our children from a distance? The COVID-19 pandemic forced Bahamian schools to rapidly adopt emergency remote teaching (ERT). According to Hodges, Moore, Lockee, Trust, and Bond (2020), “emergency remote teaching can be defined as a shift of instructional delivery to a substituted delivery approach during a crisis.” The switch wasn’t just a stopgap—it became the only option for continuing education amid the global interruption. But today, the question remains: What effect did the transition have on our students’ education, and what lessons were learned?
Challenges of Emergency Remote Teaching
The need to switch to emergency remote teaching threw a world of chaos into the hands of seasoned and less experienced institutions and education stakeholders. This mode of teaching and learning appears to be tainted with challenges that have made it more difficult for emergency remote teaching to succeed.
As a high school teacher during that time, I experienced first-hand the myriad of challenges that emerged. Parents, for instance, reported frequent disruptions due to unreliable internet access. Students missed classes, failed to complete assignments, and struggled to participate in exams. These frustrations were also felt by educators who were forced to adapt overnight to unfamiliar systems, in many instances, without adequate support.
Assessing the Impact on Bahamian Education
The Bahamas has long been committed to achieving quality education for all by 2030 as part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Yet, the struggles we faced in implementing emergency remote teaching underscore just how far we are from ensuring that every student, regardless of circumstance, receives a quality education in times of crisis. The gaps in our approach to emergency response teaching were both technical and systemic.
Despite the development of a $3 to $5 million education management and learning system led by a dedicated task force during the pandemic, it became clear that technology alone is not the solution. Schools need more than software to succeed in remote teaching—they need robust infrastructure, teacher training, and equitable access for students. Without these, the ideal of “quality education for all” remains elusive.
Preparing for Future Disruptions
So, what can we do? How can we ensure that students continue learning effectively if a disaster disrupts our lives or a hurricane hinders the return of students to class for an extended period? The first step is acknowledging the challenges. We must build on the
successes we saw with emergency remote teaching, such as the rapid rollout of new digital tools, but we must also do our due diligence to investigate and address its failures so that we remain prepared for any potential future circumstances that demand this kind of intervention. Among other things, this means investing in internet infrastructure, ensuring students have access to the necessary devices, equipping teachers with the skills they need to deliver remote lessons effectively, and establishing mechanisms and protocols for real-time feedback, technical troubleshooting, and periodic evaluations.
On the upside, the lessons gleaned from this experience can also enhance and inform our approach to distance and online learning modalities. In essence, emergency remote teaching is a reactive and temporary form of remote learning. In contrast, remote, online, or distance learning modalities are proactive, deliberate, and designed to deliver high-quality education in a remote or digital format.
This is most beneficial for students in rural and island communities where access to education is often limited by geographic isolation. In these areas, schools may face chronic staffing shortages, with limited access to specialized subjects and advanced courses. Through online platforms and remote learning, students can engage with expert teachers and specialized courses within the country or across the globe, allowing them to broaden their horizons and receive a more comprehensive education. This not only helps to bridge the educational divide for students in underserved communities but also positions Bahamian students to be more competitive on the global stage.
The Importance of In-Person Learning
While the potential of remote learning is vast, it is important not to overlook the unique benefits of in-person teaching, particularly when it comes to student engagement, social development, and learning outcomes. Face-to-face interaction with teachers allows for immediate feedback, personalized guidance, and a more dynamic classroom environment that fosters active participation. Students benefit from the structure and routine of physically attending school, as well as the social interactions that help develop communication skills and emotional intelligence.
Research consistently shows that in-person learning often leads to better academic performance and deeper comprehension of material, as students can engage in discussions, group work, and hands-on activities that are difficult to replicate online. Thus, while remote forms of learning can be improved and integrated as a valuable tool, they must complement—not replace—the irreplaceable aspects of in-person education.
Most importantly, we need to involve the entire community—parents, teachers, students, government agencies and policymakers—in the ongoing conversation to improve our emergency remote teaching capabilities and expand online learning opportunities to best serve the needs of our students and education system. By working together and exploring further, we can turn the lessons of the past few years into meaningful change for the future of education in The Bahamas.
