In 64% of the cases, the digital tools were used either rarely (once in two weeks or once a month) or not at all in the regular teaching process, and 51% of the students were never trained by their teachers how to use digital tools for the needs in the learning process. These are some of the findings of the nation wide research on the implementation of distant learning in secondary schools during the COVID-19 crisis in North Macedonia.
The research was implemented by the Leaders for Education, Activism and Development Association, in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, in the period between 25th of May and 15th of June, to a representative specimen of 639 students and 407 teachers in all 8 statistical regions in North Macedonia.
The conclusion from the research is that the secondary educational system didn’t allow favorable conditions for the quality implementation of the distant learning. One of the reasons is that the digitaliization of the education is at a very low level, andonly 51 % of the schools have an internet connection and out of them, in 53% of the cases, the internet connection is not open for student use.
The analysis shows that 55.5% of the students have evaluated the education process as average, sufficiently or insufficiently good, and one third thinks that the teaching process has helped very little or none at all in the learning of the curriculum. Also, the teachers were never trained to use digital platforms and in 37% of the cases, the online lectures and digital tools are used in less than half of the total number of school subjects.
The teachers have reported that the assessment of students was non-real and there wasn’t a system for assessment that is adapted to the model for distant learning.
