Teachers’ Readiness for Remote Teaching during the COVID-19 Emergency in selected SADC countries - infographic

To answer the question on the readiness of teachers for emergency remote teaching, this study collected data from teacher educators, teachers, students in HEIs and learners in high school. The study aimed particularly at understanding the pre- and in-service training that teachers received which built their competencies for remote teaching. It also explored the remote teaching practices that teachers and teacher educators used during the COVID-19 lockdown period, and the challenges, successes and opportunities they experienced with remote teaching. HEI students and learners also participated in the study in an effort to understand their experiences and participation in emergency remote learning.

Despite the fact that teaching and learning did not come to a complete standstill, the COVID-19 outbreak has severely disrupted teaching and learning at all levels of schooling. Evidence drawn from this research clearly indicated that some learners, students, teachers and teacher educators could not navigate ‘the jungle’ or enter ‘a brave new world’ of online teaching and learning due to unaffordability of data and unavailability of internet connectivity and network coverage. In the final analysis, the COVID-19 pandemic became a valuable lesson to SADC nations to ensure that the inequalities in education provision are addressed as a matter of urgency.