Coping with the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on primary education: teachers' struggle (case study in the Province of Yogyakarta, Indonesia)

Abstract

PurposeThe research aimed to explore the issues in the implementation of online education practice in elementary school, to study teachers' coping strategy to the online education issues and to evaluate teachers' problem-solving skill in online learning practice during the Covid-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory research focused on identifying the obstacles in teaching practice faced by elementary school teachers as well as their coping strategy with eight convenience sampled schools.FindingsOnline education practice faced unpreparedness and competency issues. Unpreparedness was found in terms of social, technical and cultural factors, while competency issue was related to online education competency and digital competency. Teachers’ struggle to cope with the issue in online education practice was focused on the performing conventional education in the online manner, suggesting teachers' lack of competency in encouraging learning success. Teachers neglected the development of students' readiness and competencies to engage in online learning. Moreover, teachers’ struggle had the least impact on the development of their online teaching competency and digital competency that are required for carrying out online teaching. In general, teachers' problem-solving skill was below the expected level. These findings suggested that improvement of teachers' competencies is important in order to cope with the issues such as in online education practice during Covid-19 pandemic and to face future challenges in education.Originality/valueThis study evaluated the gap between actual action and expected action of elementary school teachers in coping with the issues regarding online education practice.