GUEST POST – Written by David Lewis, Principal of Elea High Online School
There are many reasons for considering joining an online school and the latest news in education in the UK provides yet more.
One of the benefits of online education is that it is far less likely to be interrupted by national and global events. Online education, on the whole, was a great success during the Covid-19 pandemic and it wasn’t impacted by the teachers’ strike in the summer term.
The UK now has to contend with school closures for an indefinite period of time due to construction defects arising from the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) which most people had never heard of until last week. The disintegration of this construction material in schools and hospitals has greatly raised the risk of structural collapse and, therefore for health and safety reasons, the closure of these premises. The problem has been identified in nearly 200 schools so far with many more expected to be added to the list. Additionally, the disintegration is also believed to be releasing asbestos into schools, further raising the danger level. With the eye-watering cost of repair orbuilding new schools, it’s unlikely the situation will be resolved satisfactorily any time soon.
This news coincided with the exam result season which saw lower exam grades and swathes of disappointed students with the reason given being the disruption to their education because of the pandemic. With this new challenge, there will be further disruption and it’s not hard to predict the same grades story being repeated a few years down the line for students in bricks and mortar schools.
It’s obvious that online schools will again avoid this disruption, further strengthening the argument for parents to consider online education for their children.
It would seem that the only way to guarantee continuous, consistent high-quality education is to eschew the established education system and go online.
