Impact of distant teaching during Covid-19 pandemic on civic and financial literacy

Abstract

The global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021 resulted in the most significant disruption to school attendance in the history of humanity. Subsequent anti-pandemic caregivers demanded a shift to distance learning from kindergartens to higher education. Slovakia was one of the European Union countries with the most extended closed schools – 28 weeks. The main aim of the research was to analyze the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on education in the Slovak Republic by teaching civic and financial literacy in secondary schools in 2020-2021. In the form of in-depth interviews with selected teachers, the authors analyzed the actual state of education during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Among other things, the research showed that Slovakia was not prepared for the distance form of teaching. As a result, some children were educated in the form of self-study, some online, others combined, and some were not educated at all. Teachers used different didactic aids in online teaching; the competent state institutions published online textbooks only with hindsight. The global pandemic thus demonstrated shortcomings in the digitization of regional education. In the paper, the authors offer solutions for the future.