The Twenty-fourth Day: 15 April 2020

The Twenty-fourth Day: 15 April 2020 (98,476 confirmed infected, 12,868 died, in total)

"Social distancing in schools is simply impossible." – Katharine Birbalsingh

Sonne and I have turned back to working since yesterday. But Dan is still enjoying his Easter school break till the next Monday. Anyway, nothing is quite different for him, as his school is still closed, and he can receive education from only Sonne and I during these lock-down days.

Denmark has ordered children up to the age of 11 to return to school from today on. It is the first country in Europe to relax lock-down measures on education. Some ministers in the UK are said to be discussing on the possibility of reopening schools, too. But it seems that educational experts do not think it is feasible under the current situation.

Children in the UK begin their primary school studying at 5, unlike the Chinese education system which only admits kids of 7-year-old or beyond into schools. Dan is in his Year 2 at his school in London.

During the similar lock-down period, most Chinese schools used Internet remote classrooms to keep the curriculum schedules generally ongoing. Dan’s school had not set up such a remote classroom yet. The closure of school was announced in a relatively sudden way, so teachers could merely hand over a pile of A4 paperwork to the parents and carers.

In the recent three weeks, I have acted as the “stand-in” teacher distributing these paper materials to Dan and monitored him to finish them, all in accordance with a “home learning timetable” passed down by the real teachers.

It is a test of patience for an amateur to teach a Year 2 child about Reading, Writing and Maths. See If I can survive this test.

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