Opportunity is a ticket, not a prize...

Professor Damon Salesa, Vice-Chancellor of the Auckland University of Technology, said what many think within the educational community, last year, in identifying a previously unseen consequence of the global pandemic on higher and tertiary education.

He spoke of institutions closing their doors because of Covid, with students consequently being ‘behind’ in terms of the most basic subjects of Maths and English, particularly reading, which means that the latest cohorts are ‘playing catch-up,’ and ‘under-prepared for the intellectual rigours of university.’ I guess, being practical, it’s not so terribly difficult to understand, as societies, communities, families and individuals were all negatively affected in terms of interaction with others, and we all became somewhat introverted for a time, with our focus on our laptop and computer screens, our relationships in hiatus, as we were remorselessly dragged back into an earlier age.

What Salesa has done however, has pointed out a failing of global education authorities to make allowances for the impact of the pandemic. It’s almost as if the system was so fearful of losing income, no surprise there, that they chose to ignore a cascade, not of ignorance, but of unsupported learning, which meant that challenges were neither set, nor met, with the rigour of the classroom. There is a part of me that can understand that perspective, as few students, and probably a great deal more parents, would have agreed to a ‘nil progress’ academic year to allow students at all levels to make up the leeway.

So how do we deal with the consequences? ‘The challenge,’ always, says Salesa, ‘is to meet the needs of the children of working parents,’ the blue collar population. Disadvantaged economically, they face the scholarly challenge of a more adversely challenged learning experience through their economic situations, as fewer possible students meet scholarship and bursary requirements. Again, this is entirely understandable, as both are predicated upon industry or sector knowledge imperatives. Personally, I see this issue as a conundrum beyond resolution, and I’m ashamed to say that I don’t have any answers that adequately resolve it. Like thousands of university and college administrators, maybe just sitting on their hands, closing their eyes, pretending Salesa’s ‘long-tailed education crisis,’ will just go away.

Salesa has also, as the first in his family to be university educated, and a Rhodes Scholar to boot, achieved prominence as an example of how much can be achieved by a disadvantaged student, with his parents being a factory worker and a nurse, and his own transformative education experience one he is keen to replicate in others. He points to a key factor that I feel the Sultanate of Oman must embrace, that of being a small country, Oman cannot afford to neglect, or waste, one single talented individual, that it must maximise opportunities so the latent Nobel prize-winner or rocket scientist isn’t lost to academia or science, simply because of a lack of opportunity.

We can take the hint too, that from a recruitment perspective, the sociological benefit of enabling the eldest child in a family to utilise university or college study offers in establishing the possibility to their siblings of also pursuing higher education. So many families appear to prioritise their eldest ‘following in father’s footsteps,’ as the primary option that university study falls by the wayside. However, research has demonstrated that when the eldest child is exposed to higher education, their siblings are also more likely to do the same. There is a wee bit of guilt comes into it of course, as human nature and empathy conspire to ensure parents do the same for the others as their first, where possible.

What we parents must all be aware of, having bitten the bullet, and responded to the economic challenge, is to ensure that any offspring we push forward educationally, are fully aware of the demands of higher study, their being super demanding in terms of note-taking, out-of-class study, interpretation, and writing, none of which are simple or easy, and that they are capable of responding to them. An opportunity is one thing, making it work... another.