The effects of parental monitoring On the adaptation of learners to The school rhythm amidst the Covid-19 pandemic period.

Abstract

Our study deals with “the effects of parental monitoring on the adaptation of learners to the school rhythm amidst the COVID-19 pandemic period”. Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 in December 2019, the world was thrown into panic as the pandemic soon developed into a world health crisis as declared by the WHO on March 6 2020. Shortly after this announcement a world lockdown was announced as a means to curb the spread of the virus and the high the death tolls that had been registered. The school rhythm was disrupted as schools were closed and recourse was made to the internet and social media platforms to ensure learning continuity. The internet and social media platforms replaced the classroom and the teacher. Learners found it difficult to adjust to the new changes in the school rhythm as some saw it as an opportunity to have a lot of playtime at their disposal, some saw it as time to help their parents in socioeconomic activities, others as time to rest from school activities and some were not familiar with the new teaching and learning tools. As a result, learners became lazy, and reluctant to learn. Whereas the theory of Lazarus and Folkman (1984) holds that when an individual is confronted with new situations in which he was not used to, he can adapt to these situations by making recourse to adaptation situations such as seeking social assistance. The objective of this research was to study the link between parental monitoring and the adaptation of learners to the school rhythm amidst the COVID- 19 pandemic period. Methodologically the quantitative research design was used. Learners in the Mfoundi division of the center region constituted the population of study. The sample size of the research was 200 pupils from class 5 and 6 of group A and B of the GBPS Biyem-Assi. Data was collected using questionnaires as the tool for data collection. Data was analyzed using statistical analysis with the SPSS software. The results obtained showed that there is a link between parental monitoring and the adaptation of learners to the school rhythm amidst the COVID-19 pandemic period. The results also revealed that some parents are not available to monitor their children due to the nature of their jobs and long working hours. The study suggested that more research should be carried out to address barriers faced by parents in relation to performing their parental roles. Parents can also build relationships with primary school teachers that can help parents in the course of monitoring. Schools should also develop policies and programs to increase the involvement of parents in the academic matters of their children.