Why pandemic tutoring?
Interview with Cogito on 'On n'est pas des pigeons', RTBF, 14 January 2022
The two ideas developed in this interview:
The problem of cancelling exams
The cancellation of exams in most schools has deprived students (and their parents) of an important signal. What about the acquisition of knowledge? Faced with this lack of synthetic and reliable information, parents react. Either by saying 'No new good news' and waiting to see what happens - that's understandable, that's human. Other parents think that deficiencies have accumulated. Because exams normally lead to students working on their subjects. These parents take the lead in trying to ensure that the knowledge has been acquired. They try to remedy the situation if this is not the case. Finally, some exams such as the CE1D have been maintained, confirming the fears of many parents. In particular with the disastrous results in mathematics.
Children happy and reassured to learn!
Secondly, the idea that it is rare for a secondary school student to request to take a course in academic support into a pandemic. Great, work on my maths on Saturdays' is not a natural reaction for most of our teenagers 😉 The reason for this is that the initiative usually lies with the parents. On the other hand, we notice that when our students go back to learning - in maths, science or French - they are very satisfied and - dare we say it - quite happy! Because our children are not idiots. They know - or 'feel' - that if they accumulate deficiencies now, this will penalise them later.