Teachers face big challenge in Sabah's rural areas to carry out online learning

SEMPORNA (Bernama): Teachers, especially those teaching in rural and remote schools here, are facing a big challenge to ensure that the Online Learning and Facilitating Process (PdPc) runs smoothly during the movement control order (MCO) period.

This is because some students, especially those living on islands and plantations, do not have efficient Internet access, apart from not having facilities like computers, smartphones or other mobile devices that can facilitate the delivery process of online PdPc sessions.

Teacher Aslina Ali, 33, who teaches Geography at a secondary school about 10km from here, said some of her students who stay in plantations took three to four days to submit their assignments.

In accommodating the constraints facing her students, Aslina said she gave her students a week to complete their assignments.

"I also seek help from students in the class WhatsApp group for them to inform their friends who do not have smartphones or Internet access for school assignments.

Besides the constraints facing her students, Aslina said she would also encounter slow Internet access when uploading assignments for her more than 200 students.

However, Aslina is committed to conduct the online PdPc sessions, using a variety of applications including WhatsApp, Telegram and Google Classroom.

Facing similar problems is Nur Faraheka Abdullah, 28, an English teacher at a primary school in a plantation located about 89km from Lahad Datu.

"What I did was to call the students concerned to tell them about their school assignments based on their text books. I'll check their work when school reopens," she added.

Another teacher, Siti Aminah Amir, 28, who teaches Islamic Education at a primary school in the interiors of Kunak, said her students' involvement in PdPC session was very limited because not all of them had Internet access.

Siti Aminah said she sends assignments using short messaging system (SMS) to her students using their text books as reference. – Bernama