Abstract:

Due to the covid19 lockdown period that stretched from March 2020 to October 2020, Zimbabwean first graders like others were left in the hands of their own parents to assist in their education. These parents had own views in line with the introduced online lessons. Some of these online lessons were far-fetched as some parents had no or limited experience in using the gadgets intended to be used during the online lessons. Despite the fact that home-schooling has always been done in informal ways this move caught parents off-guard. Now it was a must and this did not go down well with some children and parents/caregivers. The parent was now in the teachers shoes proving to be an unchartered road where everyone was expected to perform beyond average. The study used the descriptive survey based on a case study of one peri-urban community where by data were gathered from a stratified sample of 20 caregivers (15 parents and 5 first grade teachers) and 20 first graders. The data were gathered using online questionnaires, telephone interviews and were it was necessary home visits as none a participating observer. Results revealed that a lack of preparedness or skills on the part of the caregivers (85%) contributed to low concentration from the learners, unavailability of the gadgets to be used (90%), content taught online seemed to be targeting able bodied or learners with no learning difficulties (70%) and changing of parent-child relationship to teacher-pupil was a toll order (100%). Main factors included poor technological competences on both the parents and the learners, unknown methodologies to use especially when teaching Mathematics and Science, lack of workshops on the part of the teachers to equip their learners and parents with skills as well as confidence issues on the teachers’ about parents taking up their roles. Thus recommendations included providing technical support to the caregivers for the learners to benefit, providing suitable gadgets to be used, explaining to the learners about the changing of roles from being parent to teacher or facilitator and also conducting workshops with the teachers to be united with the demands of e-learning during pandemic.

Keywords:

parents, home-schooling, first grader