When the pandemic broke out and the country shut down, classrooms were left behind and studies became remote. The classrooms, teachers’ lounges, principal’s office and schoolyard were replaced by a single space: the home.
Parents discovered that they had a new role: they needed to be part-teacher and part-tutor, reinforcing their child’s education with private lessons. With no prior preparation, they were suddenly required to be much more involved and active in their children’s schedules.
How did they handle this? And what did they think of their new roles? What’s difficult for them? What works? What doesn’t? What could help? And what simply needs to change?
The ADVOT Joint Venture decided to find out what parents had to say. Thus the parent survey was launched, aiming to bring a new voice to the policymakers’ table. More than 800 parents took part in the survey, which sought to uncover attitudes and perceptions regarding distance learning.
The information was collected, organized, and transferred to the Ministry of Education and local authorities, with the aim of updating and adjusting the approach and implementation of distance learning. In Umm al-Fahm, for example, a Network member used the data to help in the process of holding meetings focused on increasing trust among parents. In the Ministry of Education, discussions about learning were held based on the insights obtained from the data.
The knowledge continued to circulate to the OECD research body, to other organizations which analyzed the data and distributed it to their audiences, and to media outlets which covered the story through the eyes of the parents. Following the general survey, a group of ultra-Orthodox Network members initiated a special survey for ultra-Orthodox parents, and the insights obtained regarding the reopening of schools between lockdowns were applied.