“Instructional manual for the use of the learning system management” is the title of the document published on the North Macedonia’s Bureau for Development of Education’s official webpage (BDE), that is supposed to be of use for the teachers for their professional career development. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the BDE’s management have created an online course titled “Performing of the teaching process with the use of various ICT learning tools”. In the document, i.e. in the letter sent to the school directors it was stated that it is obligatory for all teachers in the state to pass it (around 20.000) and they will receive a certificate at the end.
Still, the teachers with whom we spoke to are having difficulties when using the document.
-I wanted to follow the manual and to register in the system in order to take the course. But the document is in a pdf format, and there are links that one should open, and because of that format, I cannot open them. I have to type the whole URL address, letter by letter, in order to be able to open the link. Additionally, the photographs in the manual that are put there so they can provide direction, are blurred, and nothing can be read from them since they were scanned. All of this is creating havoc and we are unnecessary wasting time until we manage to find solution – said one of the teachers from the Skopje area.
We talked about this issue with a Computer Science teacher who told us that the directions and photographs as such are useless.
– A mistake was made with the format when it was sent to the directors. It is highly likely it was scanned first and sent later. It is thought of to be a pdf document, but it is not. It can be opened with an Adobe program, but it shows that the document was scanned. As such this is useless since the links cannot be opened directly. In other pdf or text documents, the text can be copied and to be transferred. Also, they could have put color photographs. It would be better, when the BED managers could send the links for announcement of the course. The content should be put in a Word document as anyone has a Word, and the links to be sent as links – said the teacher.
Meta.mk asked an explanation from the BED’s management since this is not on voluntary basis but a mandatory course that has to be passed by 20.000 teachers. When we reacted they promised they will solve the problem.
-We looked at the manual and we consulted our colleagues. We will try to upload another version that will be useful for the teachers – said Oliver Stojanovski, advisor at the Bureau for Education Development
