Improving access to specialized subjects: Equity Education’s online approach

By Stuart Prendergast

Access to education is a Human Right according to Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is as it should be. But is the universal right to education achievable, especially during a pandemic?

Imagine that you are a child living through this pandemic. You would normally be at school but not any longer. On one day, your home assignment is to read the chapter in your chemistry textbook on atomic structure and answer questions 1 to 15 on page 12. You can’t find your textbook or a quiet place to study, since your parents are working from home and you share a room with your brother. Eventually you find the book, but you don’t understand some of the questions. You ask mom and dad for some help. However, they also don’t understand the questions on ionization energy. You’re left frustrated and overwhelmed, compounding the anxiety of living under lockdown.

This is the reality for many children around the world today.

Now imagine that when you do go to school, you and forty other students are being taught maths, science, languages, and art by the same teacher. This too is the reality for many children around the world irrespective of the pandemic.

The pandemic has brought into sharp relief the lack of suitable alternatives to education. The child stuck at home is not receiving homeschooling and the child in an overcrowded classroom is not getting the attention she deserves. There is a lack of quality resources online that students can readily use and follow and there is also a lack of qualified specialist teachers available to provide adequate support both online and inside many schools. This has been apparent for many years in the developing world.

These short imaginations show us that going to school – or learning from home – does not mean that a child has access to education. For this to happen there must be equity. A student needs access to subject specialist teachers and to learning resources. Many people would agree that face-to-face interaction between a student and a teacher can provide the best opportunity for someone to learn.

But what if face-to-face teaching is not an option?

I am a Chemistry teacher by training, specialising in teaching A-level Chemistry. I founded the social enterprise ‘Equity Education,’ which provides free online resources for Science, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) subject teaching. The idea is that any student, anywhere in the world should be able to better access a STEM subject specialist teacher and syllabi, if they have an internet connection. Just like in a real classroom, a student can watch me explain a topic and follow along with a printed booklet. The printed booklet helps students to follow the lessons and complete exercises as they watch the video lessons.  They use the printed booklets to complete exercises and answer questions as I go through them on the screen. Here is an example of a video on ionisation energy (download the booklet):

Although this isn’t a perfect teaching method, it does provide students with access to a subject specialist teacher when one might not available where they live. The videos themselves are pre-recorded, meaning that once they have been created, they can be used an infinite amount of time without the need for subject specialist teacher input.  This is crucial for children who live in low and middle-income countries because skilled, trained STEM teachers are often in short supply. The sharp rise in Internet connectivity and mobile phone usage in low and middle income countries means these videos should theoretically be able to reach a large number of students and teachers who would not normally have access to this type of resource.

There have been many challenges creating these lessons. The most notable one is that the videos and booklets that I have created are in English. Children who learn in other languages are excluded from the content I produce. The content is also based on a British curriculum, which might not be appropriate in all contexts.

To overcome some of these challenges, Equity Education aims to help teachers and students in low- and middle-income countries become independent. We aim to do this by co-collaborating with teachers living and working in low- and middle-income countries in hopes that they create their own videos and teaching materials in their local languages. Furthermore, these videos could help non-specialist teachers guide students through other STEM subjects.

Equity Education is but one possible solution to some of the educational problems children worldwide currently face. We need to enable every child to have access to quality education, even during a pandemic.

Stuart Prendergast is an A-level Chemistry specialist teaching in a small Independent Sixth form College.

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Opinions expressed on the CEID Blog are only those of the author, not the Centre for Education and International Development or the UCL Institute of Education.

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