Here’s What Online Schooling With Sekolah Kebangsaan Is Like

It’s ok, I guess. Online school with sekolah kebangsaan. Depends on the school, some schools seem to be handling it really well, while others are struggling. Based on what other parents have said, I think Sulaiman’s school is somewhere in between.

A bit disappointing given that it’s been almost A YEAR since we started staying home and they still haven’t figured out how to navigate things digitally. C’mon MOE, support your schools, teachers, and students.

Here’s a breakdown of online schooling with sekolah kebangsaan as they come to me:

1.The parents’ WhatsApp group is havoc

Much confusion. I dunno how to put into words what it’s like to be in a parents’ WhatsApp group while everyone tries to navigate online schooling.

The group has parents of like 40 kids, plus every teacher of every subject their kiddies are taking. I just checked. Sulaiman’s school WhatsApp group has 60 participants.

Teachers will post like “New work in Google Classroom”, others will post a bunch of photos of worksheets to be completed. Then parents will be asking wat dis? How to see work? I don’t see link? Can pass me link? How to log in? What’s my child’s password?

And other parents will be starting a list of kids’ names who have completed work. While some parents will upload all their kids’ work and send it to the group so we’re inundated with photos. Then by the end of the day there are like five separate running lists of names of kids for different subjects.

And that was BEFORE the teachers started doing live virtual class. Now that there are live virtual classes. Oh my. HAVOCCCCCCCC.

Where’s the class? What’s Google Classroom? Why is it on Zoom? What’s the password? Give me link? I cannot get in. Send me invite? Is this the link? Is class starting? Where is the teacher?

Just to be clear, I’m not bitching about other parents. I am one of those parents hahaha.

Poor parents. Poor teachers. Poor kiddos. I cry.

2. Using Google Classroom

Last year, all the kiddies received accounts from the Ministry of Education. A super weird, difficult-to-remember account. It’s basically [email protected].

With that account the kids can join their Google Classroom where teachers upload work for them.

3. Stuff that is not Google Classroom

You can tell which teachers are more digitally savvy, and the ones who are not. Sulaiman has had teachers who post up videos and attach worksheets on Google Docs for the kiddies to complete then upload into that Google classroom for the teacher to mark.

Then, he’s had teachers who WhatsApp photos of worksheets to the parent chat for us to print. Once completed by the kiddo, we have to email the work to the teacher, then take a screenshot of the email with the work attached and WhatsApp the screenshot to the teacher. Wow. Hahaha. So many steps.

And there are some teachers who want us to send them completed work on Telegram. TELEGRAM. I dunno why. But it’s ok.

Oh, some teachers, like for Pendidikan Islam and Pendidikan Musik, require the kiddo to record a video of themselves reading the Quran or singing a song. It’s so cute. It’s my favourite. Sulaiman hates that haha. It makes me smile to watch him record videos of himself and send it to the teacher. Haha. Can see him cringe as he hears his voice on the recording. Same Sulaiman, same.

4. Live online classes

It was only in November 2020 that Sulaiman’s teachers started having actual online classes. And if I’m not mistaken, it was English, Maths, and Pendidikan Islam teachers who tried it.

Oh, the chaos in the parents WhatsApp group. Hahaha. So many confused parents. I was one of them.

We’d never used that feature on Google Classroom before. But it’s basically a Google Meet/Hangout with a special password. It’s all good. Sulaiman and I just Googled how to Google Classroom and managed to join the class.

This year, some classes are on Zoom. Extra headache for parents.

5. There’s no set timetable yet

We’re a week into online school and there’s no timetable yet. Must be hard for the teachers. They have so many classes and students. Most of whom they haven’t even met before. And they have to juggle being at home and looking after their own families too.

Fridays are the funniest.

Sulaiman has Pendidikan Islam at 8.30am to 9.30am. Then nothing the rest of the day until his maths class at 8.30pm to 9.30pm. Hahahaha. Poor thing.

Aside from that he has BM on Thursdays at like 10am?

6. Juggling all four of kiddos in online school at the same time

Right now only Sulaiman is in sekolah kebangsaan. Standard 3. His classes range from starting at 8.30am to 8.30pm lol.

Ayub is in a private school for special needs kiddos. His classes start next week from 8.30am-11am, Monday to Friday.

Aisha’s kindy hosts online classes from 9am-12pm, Monday to Friday.

Lucky the baby is still a baby haha. Otherwise… Anyway, Aisha is back in physical kindy because she hated virtual learning. And being in kindy is nice.

The two big boys. Luckily we have an extra laptop so they can each use a device while learning. Can’t imagine how other families handle it. If there’s a fund for laptops/tablets/devices to be distributed to families with kiddies who need them for school, let me know. I would love to donate what I can.

7. I love all the teachers

They really try so hard. It’s not the same as physical school but they do their best. I feel sad when I see other parents complain about the teachers. It ain’t easy yo. When Sulaiman’s teachers said their goodbyes at the end of last year, wrapping up Standard 2, apologising that they couldn’t do more, I was so sad.

Such a shitty year. But the kids are happy I think. Sulaiman seems happy. Are you happy Sulaiman? I can hear him talking and laughing with his friends on Google Meet now haha.

Ok, that’s all I can think of now. I should get Sulaiman to write about what it’s like to do online classes. He wrote a lil bit about the first day of online school here.