How COVID school closures may have caused learning gaps


As students across Canada return to school, a math education expert says many young learners may be struggling with education gaps caused by pandemic-related school closures across the country. over the past two and a half years.

Vanessa Vakharia, who runs a math tutoring studio in Toronto, explains that a learning gap refers to the fact that a student lacks certain fundamental knowledge that they should have previously acquired to understand current material.

“For example, you’re in 10th grade and you’re factoring…and the child realizes, ‘I understand how to do this, but I don’t quite understand how multiplication and division work and it’s preventing me from understanding this ‘.current concept,’” Vakharia told CTV’s Your Morning on Thursday.

During the COVID-19 restrictions that forced schools to shift to online learning, Vakharia notes that many teachers were unable to complete the entire curriculum and may have missed some units. At the same time, she says many students may have had to miss some classes due to their own pandemic-related reasons.

“Maybe a student was sick for a few weeks, maybe a student really couldn’t learn online, so they kind of pulled out for a few months or a few weeks,” she told CTV’s Your Morning. “Each student has these patches where they weren’t really present in the class. And that means each student has a different gap.”

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR CHILD HAS A LEARNING GAP

Fortunately, Vakharia says learning gaps can be easily fixed, but notes identifying the problem can be difficult for parents.

“It’s very difficult to diagnose the gap as a parent and not as a math teacher. So if you have a child who has this feeling of, ‘I just don’t understand, I’m struggling. I feel like I’m hitting this stumbling block…” that’s when you can kind of say, ‘There’s a gap and we should kind of look into that ‘” she explained.

If you notice that your child seems to be struggling with a subject, Vakharia recommends contacting the teacher first.

“They’re the class experts. They’re the ones who can say, ‘Okay, you know what I notice about your kids’ test? Is that they really have no idea how to divide. ‘ They can say something like that,” she said.

But if your child’s teacher is too busy and overwhelmed to help, Vakharia suggests reaching out to another expert, such as a tutor, a family friend who is good at math, or a peer tutoring program if the your child’s school has one.

“I would ask someone to help diagnose, watch your kids’ test to see where they’re going wrong, or sit down with them, work through a full issue with them, and figure out where there are any issues. shortcomings,” Vakharia said. .

“With gaps, it’s normally just that. It’s just a gap. It’s not a trap, it’s not a valley. It’s a little gap,” she added.