Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1225368
6 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 25 MARCH 2020 NEWS Coronavirus DAVID HUDSON THE COVID-19 pandemic was creating a digital divide since students can no longer report to school, the Nationalist Par- ty said, complaining that Malta does not have an e-learning in- frastructure in place. "The pandemic has revealed the government's difficulties in implementing an e-learning strategy. The pandemic is expos- ing the exigency of online learn- ing but we are not prepared for it," Clyde Puli, spokesperson for the family, said in a press confer- ence on Tuesday. Puli said the closure of schools to control the COVID-19 out- break was necessary but due to the government's unprepared- ness on digital learning, hun- dreds of schoolchildren stand to suffer and lose time on their education. "Despite knowing the pandem- ic was coming, the education ministry had no contingen- cy plan, not even a short-term strategy, especially due to initial resistance to close the schools down. For example, a 2012 white paper suggested that internet be guaranteed as a right in the con- stitution. This hasn't happened and a digital divide still exists. "There are students out there who still don't have this facil- ity. The same thing happened with the tablet-per-child strat- egy where it was only partially implemented. Years 4 to 6 have them, but Forms 1 to 5 don't. A number of teachers were not granted a laptop either," he said. Puli praised teachers who were communicating with students in innovative ways and keeping the classroom environment alive through digital means, on their own initiative. "Luckily there are many committed teachers out there." Puli made reference to the Mal- ta AI Project, a Budget measure announced in the previous year, that included a number of pro- posals that would have helped diversify and facilitate teaching, including allowing teachers to provide feedback on students' homework through digital means. However, Puli said, the implementation of such propos- als was either slow or never took off. "The Malta Digital Innovation Authority has not yet even allo- cated the finances to implement certain proposals. The digital di- vide still exists. We already have a high rate of early school leavers and the pandemic will exacer- bate this situation," he said. PN MP Claudette Buttigieg added that 4,000 students are to sit for the Maltese Advanced Level exam while another 6,000 are to sit for the Ordinary Level Maltese exam on 25 April, less than four weeks from now. "These students and their fami- lies are still not informed wheth- er this exam will be taking place. I mention Maltese because it arguably involves the largest co- hort of students. Thousands of students and their families are not as yet informed. To top it off, there are students who have not yet finished their syllabus," Buttigieg said. She added that a digital divide between students and between teachers still existed and that while a number of teachers and lecturers were going out of their way to find innovative systems to still keep in contact with their students, others did not find the necessary help to do the same. Lack of e-learning strategy leaves students suffering digital divide MATTHEW VELLA AS more and more countries around the world move towards mandatory lock- downs to curb the spread of COVID-19, concern is rising for women and children for whom the home is a place of fear, not a place of safety. "Keeping safe from the virus, slowing down its spread and making sure our health systems can cope are of crucial importance, but we need to be aware that the restrictions on movement offer abusers additional power and control," Marcelline Naudi, the president of GRE- VIO – the Council of Europe's Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence – said. "We hear that some women victims of violence are deciding against seeking medical attention for fear of contagion." Yet domestic violence shelters in some areas have already stopped all admis- sions because they are unsure how to manage the risk of infection. Others are privileging online or telephone support, which carries many risks for women who are in close quarters with their abusers. "Nor must we forget that the eco- nomic consequences of the pandem- ic, such as loss of job or income, will hit women hard in that they create or exacerbate financial dependency, reducing their ability to leave abus- ers," Naudi said. All signatories to the Council of Eu- rope Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence – also known as the Istanbul Convention – continued to apply in times of conflict or in times of a pandemic. "GREVIO calls on all parties to do their utmost to ensure continuity in service provision and to keep offering support and protection to women and girls at risk of violence, with the involvement of all relevant actors: law enforcement agen- cies, social services, the justice sector, specialist support services and all rele- vant ministries. "It gives us hope to see that many na- tional administrations are rising to the challenges this pandemic presents to women victims of violence and are al- ready working towards innovative solu- tions. For example, some are launching specific information campaigns on avail- able services, while others are introduc- ing online application forms for pro- tection orders, and yet others have included domestic violence support services amongst the 'essential ser- vices' to be," Naudi said. Many support services are offering online services, including psycholog- ical counselling and psychosocial sup- port. "Never before has the need been greater to ensure that such innovative solutions form part of a concerted effort by all relevant ministries and women's organisations in a joint effort to keep women and children safe from violence," Naudi said. "I call on all Parties to the Convention to follow in these footsteps. I hope that the renewed spirit of solidarity this pan- demic is creating in our societies will ex- tend to women and girls who are victims of violence, and who may now feel even more trapped with their abusers." For many women and children, home is not a safe place in lockdown Marcelline Naudi