The coronavirus, or COVID-19, has had an unprecedented impact on all parts on the world’s educational, economic, and social impact. Throughout the United States, state governments have prohibited gatherings of more than 500 people. Event organizers have cancelled many popular events, such as SXSW in Austin, Texas, and St. Patrick’s Day parades in Boston, Massachusetts and Dublin, Ireland. Many businesses require their employees to work from their homes, and others have decided to halt their operations.
In order to limit the spread of COVID-19, health officials are recommending people to practice social distancing, where they remain at least six feet apart from others in public. According to history, this is a proven method of preventing the spread of disease. With the Spanish influenza, there were far fewer deaths in populations that practiced social distancing than other populations. However, using this method to limit the spread of the virus at hand comes with an obvious cost to everyday life.
Changes in education
One of COVID-19’s largest impacts has been on education. Following the virus’ unforeseen expansion, the shutdown of countless universities and K-12 school districts was inevitable. Even though the CDC only recommends schools to close for a maximum of 5 days in response to a confirmed case of COVID-19 in a community, many schools are still taking precautionary measures by shutting down indefinitely. How do schools plan to circumvent this pandemic’s impact on their regular operations?
Many schools are beginning to hold online classes to substitute in school learning. This is effective for people from advantaged economic backgrounds. However, for those that don’t have access to a computer or the internet, this is unlikely to be effective. Additionally, many extracurricular activities would be unavailable for students to participate in.
Some schools are using their available resources to provide all students with access to online learning. Districts with sufficient funding already have devices that are intended for educational use. Schools are repurposing these devices for home usage. This allows students that don’t have available devices to be able to access online classes from home.
Furthermore, many organization have cancelled college entrance exams in response to concerns over the spread of the virus. Collegeboard cancelled the March 14th SAT exam, and individual test centers with coronavirus cases have been closed. The ACT was also forced to cancel their April 4th testing date and allow testers to instead take the exam during June or July.
Additionially, tests that allow students to pursue post-graduate opportunities are also being affected. The Association of American Medical Colleges, or AAMC, has cancelled their exams for March 27th and April 4th. The National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, or NCEES, has closed its test centers.
Education in the future
How long will education have to suffer as a result of the coronavirus outbreak? Most health officials predict that life will ideally start to return to normal within two to three months, based off of China’s experience with the virus. Since COVID-19 initially appeared in China during December 2019, the total amount of cases present of people with the virus has slowly leveled out at around 80,000 cases, based on data organized by Stanford University.
Does this mean that educational institutions are free to return to their regular operations? Unfortunately not, since social distancing is still necessary to prevent further spread. Trials for development of a vaccine had only begun on March 15th. Moreover, if a vaccine that effectively prevents the development of COVID-19 is found, it will take at least a year before the vaccine is produced for public use.
Future developments
The true nature of the virus is uncertain. Some experts predict that the virus’ potency correlates with the world’s seasonal weather changes, similar to how the flu becomes more potent during the winter. A study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine found a correlation between temperature, humidity and COVID-19. This could explain why areas that would be prone to spreading of COVID-19, due to international travel, do not have as many cases as expected. The climate in these regions may not be favorable to the spread of contagion. However, this study failed to account for all factors that would influence the spread of the virus.
Health officials will take a more targeted approach to deal with the coronavirus once they discover more information about the virus’ true nature. At the moment, the world must rely on social distancing, which disrupts vital educational opportunities for students on an international scale. With efforts taken by schools and educational institutions, students are slowly learning to adapt to their new systems of education.