Better for Asia’s schoolchildren lose a year to COVID-19?

联合国教科文组织在官僚中说，这听起来更令人印象深刻：“教育本身将由新的分裂定义 -政策and practices before COVID-19, and those that will come to define the next generation of learning.” (1) Amen.

在Covid-19之前，我们进行了面对面的教育。由于鉴于我们正在处理的巨大民族人口，因此现在不再是可行的，我们必须寻找方法的组合。

We now have to invent a system for the next generation of learning. The schools in Asia are experimenting with various modes of delivery of their educational content. Predictably, most have gone online, like the universities in Indonesia’s most populated island of Java.

在家学习是最明显的选择。但是，尽管大学也许能够做到这一点，但主要和次要级别不能因为数字而无法做到这一点。数字植物和伊斯·不知不觉之间的鸿沟阻碍了障碍。这些亚洲国家中的大多数没有数字基础架构和技术来传达教育信息。（3）

A majority of these students have limited school-provided computer labs and equipment. Many do not have access to fast and unlimited Internet on their mobile devices.

Internet penetration in Asia ranges from super low in Central and South Asia to super high in East Asia. Low Internet examples are Kyrgyzstan with 38 per cent penetration, Tajikistan with 31 per cent and Pakistan with 32 per cent. At the high end of the spectrum are South Korea with 96 per cent Internet penetration, Japan with 93 per cent and Taiwan with 92 per cent. (3)

In the middle are the Asian giants — China with 59 per cent Internet penetration, India with 40 per cent and Indonesia with 62 per cent. The South Asian country Bangladesh is at 58 per cent. In the broader middle are the mix of ASEAN countries, ranging from Brunei with 95 per cent, Singapore 88 per cent and Malaysia 81 per cent, to Laos 42 per cent, Cambodia 47 per cent and Myanmar 40 per cent. (3)

However, UNESCO is working with countries in the region to mobilise solutions to “provide education remotely, leveraging hi-tech, low-tech and no-tech approaches through formal and non-formal approaches”. (1)

In other words, anything goes since nobody really knows what to expect. This is unchartered territory.

A blended approach proposed by the Philippines may work. The blended approach, as the name implies, is a combination of methodologies to deliver the knowledge. The approach entails a combination (or a mix) of various approaches which evokes images of a Filipino dish — thehalo-halo（或混合混合物）各种热带水果用作牛奶和压碎冰的茶点。

This mix-mix includes college students learning from home in countries or areas where the Internet is adequate — digital learning through computers for college students of families who can afford the equipment in places where high speed Internet is available.

对于高度发达的国家，学生将能够通过互联网完成教育，您能想象从现在起十年后的数字课程吗？他们将很难与校友聚会，他们只在Internet。Or one may show up at a reunion by his lonesome self?

If college students go digital in developed countries, it will reduce traffic and help primary and secondary school students. For non-college students, when they reach school they will be subjected to the usual protocols — daily temperature checks, face masks, social distancing, use of hand disinfectants, regular disinfection of classrooms and equipment, with resident school doctors and nurses, and school-prepared meals served in the school cafeteria.

But even this option has its critics. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte himself prefers to wait until a vaccine is available before restarting classes to protect the children from COVID-19, and ultimately, thevulnerable家庭中的成年人。我乐观的估计是，该疫苗可能需要一年的时间才能实现。

This leads me to my fearless forecast. Even this blended approach may take time to implement. The COVID-19 pandemic will, in all probability, get worse before it gets better. In the US, Brazil, Russia and India, cases are now spiking alarmingly.

我们不能赶回学校。接种人需要两年的时间：一年生产疫苗和一年才能完善并给人们剂量。这就是为什么我们需要时间让学校恢复，最好是一年，最多两年的原因。我们可以利用这段时间来升级我们的互联网和数字系统，以便在时间到来时，大学生可以上网，小学生可以上学。

We expect the digital experts work side by side with the curriculum specialists to prepare the syllabi. Countries will be scrounging for funds to survive this pandemic but we hope they have enough credit to borrow from theWorld Bankor亚洲发展银行。

This reminds an octogenarian like me of the time when I was in grade school at the start of World War II in 1941—1944 when the Japanese invaded and occupied the Philippines. We had no school then. When the war ended, we just compressed three school years into two and promoted everyone by one grade based on qualifying exams given mid-year.

Just forget school for this year and encourage self-study with the help of parents. When we have the vaccine, we can safely go back to school next year, aided by improved Internet and digital systems. If there is still no vaccine next year, then governments must reassess the current situation by then and decide whether to resume classes or further delay schooling by another year.

To take care of the lag, promote everybody by one year two years from now. We do need to rush back to school. But we have to make haste slowly.

Crispin C. Maslog, former journalist with Agence France-Presse, is an environmental activist and former science journalism professor, Silliman University and University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines. He is a founding member and now Chair of the Board, Asian Media Information and Communication Centre, Manila.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Asia & Pacific desk.