RESEARCH PAPER
Effect of COVID-19 on the Performance of Grade 12 Students: Implications for STEM Education
 
More details
Hide details
1
PhD Candidate, School of Doctoral Studies, Universidad de Valladolid, SPAIN
 
 
Publication date: 2020-04-07
 
 
EURASIA J. Math., Sci Tech. Ed 2020;16(7):em1851
 
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
With all learning institutions pre-maturely closed on 20 March 2020 and all citizens advised to self-isolate in a bid to control the spread of COVID-19, it was hypothesized that COVID-19 would negatively impact on the performance of students in the 2020 Grade 12 national examinations vis-à-vis mathematics, science and design and technology subjects. An observed steady increase in the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases and the low levels of technology use in secondary schools in Zambia due to limited technology resources signifies a very difficult period in a young country which has just rolled out a nation-wide implementation of STEM education, This study collected data from three teachers at a public secondary school in Chipata District of Eastern Province in the Republic of Zambia. The Head of Department for Mathematics, the Head of Natural Sciences Department and one science teacher were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews via mobile phone were used to collect views of what these specialists thought would be the COVID19 effects on the general performance of students in their subject areas. Results of this study revealed that there is likely to be a drop in the pass percentage of secondary school students in this year’s national examinations if the COVID-19 epidemic is not contained in the shortest possible time considering that the school academic calendar was abruptly disturbed by the early untimely closure of all schools in the country.
REFERENCES (10)
1.
Chinazzi, M., Davis, J. T., Ajelli, M., Gioannini, C., Litvinova, M., Merler, S., ... Viboud, C. (2020). The effect of travel restrictions on the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/scienc....
 
2.
Chipata Day Secondary School (2020). Performance analysis report for 2019 school certificate examinations. Chipata, Zambia.
 
3.
Creswell, J. W. (2017). Educational Research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. 4th edition.
 
4.
Hopman, J., Allegranzi, B., & Mehtar, S. (2020). Managing COVID-19 in Low and Middle income Countries. JAMA. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2....
 
5.
Kraemer, M. U., Yang, C. H., Gutierrez, B., Wu, C. H., Klein, B., Pigott, D. M., ... Brownstein, J. S. (2020). The effect of human mobility and control measures on the COVID-19 epidemic in China. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/scienc....
 
6.
Sintema, E. J., & Phiri, P. A. (2018). An investigation of zambian mathematics student teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). Journal of Basic and Applied Research International, 24(2), 70-77.
 
7.
Wang, C., Cheng, Z., Yue, X. G., & McAleer, M. (2020). Risk Management of COVID-19 by Universities in China. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm13....
 
8.
Wickramasinghe, N. C., Steele, E. J., Gorczynski, R. M., Temple, R., Tokoro, G., Wallis, D. H., & Klyce, B. (2020). Growing Evidence against Global Infection-Driven by Person-to-Person Transfer of COVID-19. VirolCurr Res, 4(1).
 
9.
Wu, Z., & McGoogan, J. M. (2020). Characteristics of and important lessons from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in China: summary of a report of 72 314 cases from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. JAMA. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2....
 
10.
Zu, Z. Y., Jiang, M. D., Xu, P. P., Chen, W., Ni, Q. Q., Lu, G. M., & Zhang, L. J. (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A perspective from China. Radiology, 200490. https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol....
 
eISSN:1305-8223
ISSN:1305-8215
Journals System - logo
Scroll to top