During the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of people lost their jobs. Moreover, schools and universities closed all across Kazakhstan and transitioned to online classes. They were forced to build emergency remote learning systems. No one was ready for such sudden changes – teachers, education platforms, and learning materials. It resulted in both learning and equality losses.
The reason is that a lot of children did not have access to computers or the internet, teachers were neither trained nor familiar with online teaching, lessons were too short for pupils to ask questions, etc. However, some families were able to hire private tutors for their children.
All of this created a big gap in knowledge and even increased inequality among students. Thus, I decided in April 2020 to tutor school- or university-related subjects to children and students whose parents lost jobs or who originally came from low-income families.
This project is a series of free tutoring sessions for students who can not afford a private tutor due to the pandemic effects or other family-related issues. We had a team of five people with knowledge in relevant fields and with the ability to teach and explain the material.
During the lockdown, we taught our lessons online using Skype. We had arranged small groups of up to five people, including a tutor, and continued our study sessions. I and my team did our best to make everything as comprehensible and simple as possible.
As someone with experience in tutoring, I realize that every person is unique, so their learning pace might be different. Therefore, we have private and group lessons with the intention of making everyone engage in lectures. Using different methods, materials, and psychological techniques, we are able to motivate students and induce proactivity and interest in them.