Jacqueline Paul
On Monday 23rd March 2020 Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that New Zealand moved up to COVID-19 Alert Level 3 and that by midnight of Wednesday 25th of March, New Zealand would move up to COVID-19 Alert Level 4. This allowed the country to prepare for lockdown in 48 hours. Schools and universities were shut down and many students were told to study and learn online from home.
Each year, around 3,000 students complete a masters degree in the New Zealand tertiary education system: 7 percent are Māori and about 28 percent of them are ‘young’ domestic students[1]. In this discussion, I would like to highlight and address the equity issues for tertiary students who are expected to continue to study and learn online from home as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown. There are multiple challenges for distance learning which is raised, recognising who is taught, what is taught, and how the teaching is done[2]. Under the current conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, this continues to put a lot of pressure on families and individuals and more so, students who live intergenerationally at home.
As a lecturer at the School of Architecture, New Zealand Institute of Skills & Technology - Unitec, there have been a lot of changes in what we teach and how we teach across the diverse creative disciplines. This unprecedented situation has had a significant impact on how we have had to adapt and respond rapidly to continue to deliver programmes online and continue to support students at a distance. But this approach is problematic in ensuring that educational equity is at the forefront of informing our processes and practices.
The assumption that staff and students have equal access to certain resources like laptops, internet and materials to support ongoing learning and teaching is problematic. As a result of the high level of uncertainty and lack of preparation to work from home, this would have been a priority over the concerns of students.
The responses across the tertiary have been diverse where some universities shut everything down and moved the mid-semester break forward, some teaching in blocks, and some have tried to continue ‘business as usual’. This pandemic has revealed how systems fail to serve the people and communities they work with and for - in this instance, students.
In 2019 Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins announced urgent action to address pastoral care concerns in the tertiary sector. The Tertiary Education Commission recognizes that “the Code means there will be a consistent approach to the welfare, safety and well-being and pastoral care of domestic tertiary students, including higher standards for those in tertiary hostels[3].”Many students moved home to be with family or struggled because they lost jobs and groups continue to lobby and advocate for further support from the government. I think it’s really important to emphasize as challengers emerge and unfold that the social, cultural, emotional, spiritual well being of students will struggle and this will have a major impact on their academic achievement amid the COVID-19 lockdown and may also take longer to regain resilience.
These are multiple responses that I have had from Māori and Pasifika Masters students discussing their experiences during this time of the COVID-19 national lockdown:
Student A:
I am not coping. Every day I feel like balling my eyes out. I tear up here and then. Have to hold back the tears whenever someone asks me how I’m doing. I’m struggling but trying to do the best I can. Been having a lot of obstacles thrown at me since last week. It annoys me when people tell me “you just gotta push through”. Uni is slack. Whatever programmes or resources used at uni should be freely available and accessible while we are at home. Deadlines have not been altered or achievable. The pressure is way more intense now. But I’m doing the best I can which is not enough.
Admitting that we’re struggling is hard. Feel defeated but know deep down that this is not the way to deal with things right now. Productivity is low. Motivation low. Support from supervisors is low but hard to make them see our perspectives (Pakeha views). Space is tight. Resources are expensive but needed to complete work for the high expectations of uni and supervisors. Financial instability.
Student B:
I feel like every day my work has been eating at me, stressing cause there’s all these deadlines still, adjusting to a small space with barely any support, being inside everyday cause I don’t have the time to go out and do stuff cause all I can think about is trying to get my work done, and that I can’t waste any time. I had to have a full on break from my work today cause it was just eating at me so much I felt like I was gonna explode from all the stress, which has kinda stressed me more cause that was a whole day of writing gone too. I’m kinda on the edge of extending but then still feeling the need to get my work done, I find it hard to relax, especially getting to sleep.
Sounds like it’s not just us which is sad because no one is really making an effort to take that into consideration, it’s more than just physical isolation, it takes a huge toll on your mental and emotional health.
Student C
They have failed to prioritise their students. And it’s very obvious by the amount of consideration they have given to students. But it looks as if they thought only of the well off students - which are generally Pakeha and not Pasifika. I think the fact that we are such a minority that they don’t prioritise us cause we’re not profitable. But I do think there is good stuff, very few. I think there are a lot of compromises that they could have made. Such as giving out easy access to software and licenses. Giving out resources such as computers. Extending or altering their schedules. Or at least be more open to what the students have to say. Overall they are running it like a business and not like a tertiary institution and in it for the money.
I’m struggling to adjust to this new working space. It’s not like they’ve trained us to work from home or outside of uni. Or throughout our years of studying there, we’ve always worked in labs and the transition from bringing uni work to home is making it that much more challenging. Culturally it is the way it is for me. Work and family aren’t mixed. I think that they’ve given me solutions that suit them better than the other way round. All the work I’ve done since the last critique has gone to waste. And I’ve had to redo everything I did but on pen and paper which is a lot harder. My work space is not confined. Open to all members of the household. My room is a public gathering space. Hence why I do my work at uni and I can’t afford to bring my work home
This provides an insight into the lack of support provided and the struggle to study from home for several Masters students of Māori and Pasifika descent. Equity in higher education is important for social justice, cohesion and prosperity. Higher education confers private benefits for individuals, including increased earnings, and social benefits for their communities like increased civic participation (Baum, Ma, & Payea, 2013); therefore, any inequalities in access to higher education will have long-term implications[4]. Yes, the pandemic has impacted education across the globe but the response and approach here in New Zealand widens equality gaps. It’s important to address the inequities demonstrated through this COVID-19 lock down and that those students of less affluent families will be left behind. I hope that there will be a significant change in the near future to address these challenges and ensure that we put the health and well-being of our students first with additional support that accommodates their needs to access equal education as distance learners.
References
[1] Ministry of Education. (2014). The outcomes of tertiary education for Māori graduates. https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/147243/The-outcomes-of-tertiary-education-for-Maori-graduates.pdf
[2]Campbell, P., & Storo, J. (1996). Reducing the Distance: Equity Issues in Distance Learning in Public Education. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 5(4), 285-295. Retrieved April 3, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/40188564
[3] New Zealand Ministry of Education. (2019, October 14). Minister announces new pastoral care code of practice for tertiary organisations. Tertiary Education Commission. https://www.tec.govt.nz/news-and-consultations/minister-announces-new-pastoral-care-code-of-practice-for-tertiary-organisations/
[4] Theodore, R., Taumoepeau, M., Kokaua, J., Tustin, K., Gollop, M., Taylor, N., … & Poulton, R. (2018). Equity in New Zealand university graduate outcomes: Māori and Pacific graduates. Higher Education Research & Development, 37(1), 206-221.