COVID-19 IMPACTS ON DIGITAL EDUCATION IN MAURITIUS: A DIGITAL READINESS ANALYSIS

Abstract

Institutional, national, and international education community are all, without any exception, facing challenging situations to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the education systems. Mauritius has taken several important initiatives towards remote learning and distance education in general, to maintain continuity of teaching and learning during COVID-19 related school closures. One such policy initiative is the amendment of the Education Act Bill, to make provision for staffs of educational institutions to produce and conduct distance education and online learning programmes, including broadcast lessons, during temporary closure of educational institutions. However, in line with the bottom-up approach, such policy initiative and its implementation should be informed by baseline empirical data representing the voices of the key stakeholders. This Mauritian study, underpinned by a mixed epistemological stance, is an integral part of the Stockholm University recent Global Online Survey on ‘COVID-19 Impacts on Education and Needs for distance education and digital solutions. It analyses the voices of stakeholders, namely students, teachers, managers and policy makers, to (i) situate the country’s current digital readiness based on four performance indicators namely accessibility, affordability, readiness /preparedness and effectiveness, (ii) provide empirical baseline data to inform and assist policy makers in developing both during and after COVID digital educational actions, solutions and policies, and (iii) provide a list of recommendations that will assist the educational community in their choice of the most effective and contextualized distance education and digital solutions to reduce or mitigate Digital divide in Mauritius.