High school online P.E. class

BarcelonaThe room is narrow and small, but there is a computer with a big screen. At 10.20 a.m. sharp, Alexia is sitting in front of the computer dressed in tights and a T-shirt, ready to exercise. In theory she is about to start P.E. class. Physical Education, though, by video call. The teacher is at the school and she, like the other students, is at home. It's the so-called new (strange) normality. Because bars, restaurants and shopping centres have reopened minimally, but high school students - at least those in public centres - remain in the same way, taking part in long-distance learning classes. And at the moment there are no plans for students to return to face-to-face classes at 100%.

"How strange, the connection doesn't work", Alexia worries, as she waits for the teacher to appear on the screen. She sends a message through WhatsApp to a classmate to find out if the same thing is happening to her or if it is perhaps her connection that is failing. It seems everyone is going through the same issue. Alexia is 16 years old, she is studying the first year of post-compulsory high school education at the state school Doctor Puigvert in Barcelona, and she says that she has already gotten used to the idea of taking part in the long-distance learning classes. And she doesn't think it's bad. Well, she rectifies: first thing in the morning, at eight o'clock, it sucks, she says, and she doesn't like doing P.E. class at home either.

"Go connect the cameras, please", the gym teacher, Ricard Domènech, asks, when he finally appears on screen. From what's behind him, he looks like he's in a high school classroom. "Aitana, Nerea, Noa, Sergio...", he lists one by one the students who are reluctant to activate their cameras. "I don't have any", answers one. "Don't you have a camera on your mobile?", the teacher answers. The class begins with warm-up exercises that the teacher does, and that Alexia has to follow as well as she can in her room. It's not easy because the space is tiny and the teacher's image is barely visible on the computer.

It's no panacea

The director of the Dr. Puigvert Institute, Txeli Segué, admits that online classes are no panacea. "I have 700 students [in total at the high school], so it doesn't make much difference if 70 don't come", she says, implying that if secondary school students go to their classrooms, why can't high school students do so? She adds that "high school students get depressed if they stay home, and those who have trouble following classes find it more difficult to use the Internet".

Yet these are the directions of the Department of Education. As Segué explains, schools that provide post-compulsory education (such as high school and vocational training) were informed at the beginning of November that they had to deploy a "hybrid model" in accordance with the resolution passed on 29th October by the Department of Health to reduce mobility and contain the outbreak of the coronavirus. This meant in practice that students had to combine classroom and online classes, and it was recommended that they do so on alternate days. Therefore, this is the model that the Dr. Puigvert Institute is applying.

The school's post-compulsory high school coordinator, Tània Rodríguez, also corroborates that online classes are not the best option and regrets that at the moment there is no date to change this situation. The return to classrooms is linked to sections of lockdown easing that for now the Government has stopped due to the spread of contagion. Nevertheless, while restrictions in other sectors such as the hospitality industry and the cultural world have been slightly reduced, in the education sector no steps have been taken.

Oriol Ventura teaches mathematics to second year students of post-compulsory high school from a classroom of Dr. Puigvert. He talks and gestures while looking at the desks, but there is not a single soul in the classroom. It is completely empty. The pupils follow the explanations from home, via the Internet. "Do you understand?", the teacher asks. Silence from the other side of the screen. "Have you got this far?" he insists. "Yes, yes", some voices respond timidly. According to Ventura, students hardly ask questions in online classes and interaction is limited. To begin with, he says, most students don't even activate the camera. "Many say it doesn't work for them".

"The problem is that there are teachers who speak for two hours straight and don't ask any questions", Eva says, who is a high school freshman. "Besides, since we go to class one day and not the next, you don't get into the rhythm", she complains. Nerea, who takes the same course, also says that she finds it harder to understand the explanations if the class is online and that all she wants to do is go back to her classroom. "Last week we were told we could go back. I was looking forward to it!" It was a false alarm, and now, with the risk of a third wave during Christmas, there's even less light at the end of the tunnel.