As schools return to face-to-face teaching in Scotland, the situation in colleges is less clear. Most have postponed the start of term for learners, are home-working where possible and offering some form of blended learning for the foreseeable future.
An EIS-FELA survey – conducted in June and July 2020 and published this week – reflected a range of lecturer concerns. With many entering FE as a “second career”, college lecturers are a higher risk demographic – the majority of respondents were over 50 with just 1 per cent in their 20s (the same percentage were in their 70s) and 16 per cent indicated that either they or a member of their household had been shielding.
Most struggled with the transition to home working during lockdown, lacking the space and equipment to do so effectively and struggling to balance work with caring responsibilities. For many, the stress has taken a toll on their mental health:
One said: “I am not a young lecturer and my IT skills are not great … I have learned along the way but the speed and confidence at which I can work in isolation [have] had an adverse effect on my mental health.”
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While some colleges gleefully heralded the shift to online learning as a vision of the future – no doubt with cash savings ringing up before their eyes – the reality for lecturers and learners alike has been one of “muddling through”, often with systems that were never designed for remote learning and with students who were overwhelmed by their own family and work commitments.
As one succinctly put it: “My college is living in fantasy land imagining that a brave new world of online learning will just happen.”
Filling the gaps in months of missed learning
Echoing the earlier EIS-FELA student survey, lecturers reported home circumstances, lack of equipment and poor or no internet access as key factors preventing their learners from engaging. Many also cited employment issues, from health and social care students working long hours in front line roles to apprentices who found themselves furloughed and unable to complete work-based qualifications.
More than two-thirds were concerned about physical or mental health issues affecting learners, often feeling unable to switch off as distressed learners contacted them “at all hours of the day and night”. Many were also critical of poor communication from SQA regarding last session’s qualifications and deeply uncertain of expectations for the year ahead.
Further education plays a vital role in Scotland’s economy and wider society, now more than ever. While the focus in the wake of the 2020 SQA results day has been on educational inequality in schools, colleges are at the sharp end of the attainment gap, offering education to school leavers and adult learners alike from the poorest backgrounds, including the majority of care experienced learners in post 16 education. Many of those senior phase pupils disadvantaged through lockdown will progress to college programmes in September – and lecturers will need to backfill the gaps left from months of missed school.
As we start a new academic year, it is clear that colleges are not yet safe for a full return to face to face learning and there are immediate and pressing safety issues for those who do physically require to be on campus. If the Scottish Government are really serious about closing the attainment gap and reducing the impact of Covid-19 on the life chances of working-class learners, there are also a multitude of issues which need to be addressed at sector level if we are to ensure a positive and equitable learning experience for the 2020-21 college cohort.
The silence from the Scottish government amid renewed threats of cost-cutting, lecturer redundancies and increased use of instructor-assessors by college principals presents a very real risk to the class of 2020-21.
Pam Currie is an EIS FELA national negotiator and a member of the EIS FELA executive
