Pandemic and Remote Education at the High School Level: an Analysis of the Study Environment and School Performance of Students from Ceará State´s Countryside, Brazil

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2, a recently discovered virus, spread rapidly from China to the rest of the world in the early 2020s, resulting in what experts are calling the biggest pandemic of the century. Overcrowded hospitals, deaths by the millions, and untold damage to public health, education, and the economy. To prevent the country's educational system from facing greater negative impacts, educational institutions have had to adapt and reinvent the way they offer classes, despite the imposition of social isolation. They opted for emergency remote teaching, a system that demanded quick adaptations from students and teachers to the new moment, especially in relation to the use of digital media, which became the main tools for planning, developing, and conducting remote classes in public and private education networks. The present study aimed to understand and analyze the main perceptions of high school students from Ceará state´s countryside (Brazil), regarding their physical study environment and their school performance during the pandemic. To this end, we applied an electronic questionnaire that was answered by 2,588 students, generating data that showed, among other aspects, the lack of physical structure, the unpreparedness of teachers, and the dissatisfaction of students in relation to the remote teaching-learning process, especially in socially and economically vulnerable areas.

Keywords: Covid-19. On-line classes. Digital media. School administration. Educational inequality.