Hit hard by the third wave of coronavirus infections, Hong Kong’s stringent pandemic restrictions and social-distancing measures are here to stay. Our lives are being disrupted, in one way or another. Education is no exception. As a parent, I’m more concerned about the timeline of school closures. And if education continues to stay virtual, what can be done to ensure quality education for my daughter and other kids in the society? Even if school resumes virtually in September, how could we ensure the mental and social well-being of the students?

When I try to exhaust all possible options for my daughter, the model of pandemic pods comes to mind. This is a self-organized and bottom-up approach for multiple families to co-organize home schooling.

Originated from the United States, the pandemic pods home-school concept is a creative response from the parents to the online learning new normal. As school districts in the US have started rolling out plans for the fall, parents across the country have started to react by setting up a variety of learning pods, small-group learning, or micro-schooling. Such an approach has provoked heated debates on home-school versus online learning in American media.

According to The Wall Street Journal, parents have to spend US$300-US$400 per week to hire a teacher to teach a group of five to six children who know each other well. They either rent a studio space or organize the learning pod in their household.

Hong Kong is now facing a similar situation. While kids’ summer classes and activities have come to a halt as the Education Bureau announced a delay in opening the fall semester, the question being asked is whether the pandemic pods can fill the children’s educational needs.

As a parent and a doctorate student in education, I urged schools in Hong Kong to plan well ahead and consider adopting the idea of pandemic pods by dividing students into smaller classes and adopting any user-friendly environment, such as the rooftop, library, outdoor playground or a safe open space that is relatively quiet

According to a recent report, titled “Balancing the risks of pupils returning to schools” and authored by academics from Cambridge and Bristol universities, school closures could have severe social and economic effects that will endure for decades. Children, in particular, are affected not just academically, but social-distancing measures also adversely affect their emotional health.

Here we face a dilemma: Sending kids back to school may expose them to potential health risks, while keeping them at home for online learning will adversely affect their holistic development. One advantage that pandemic pods offer is less virus exposure risk with small-class teaching. By hiring a qualified teacher to teach at the pod, quality education supported by social life could go hand-in-hand. 

The uncomfortable truth is that not every family has the luxury in terms of space, time and resources to coordinate pandemic pods by themselves. Some local families even struggle with Wi-Fi access that allows their kids to keep up with the far-from-ideal online learning.

As a parent and a doctorate student in education, I urged schools in Hong Kong to plan well ahead and consider adopting the idea of pandemic pods by dividing students into smaller classes and adopting any user-friendly environment, such as the rooftop, library, outdoor playground or a safe open space that is relatively quiet.

Nature is another resource parents could count on to base the pandemic pods. In the US, some experts have suggested outdoor, nature-based pods for small-group teaching and learning. Julia Marcus, an infectious disease epidemiologist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, said last month that the outdoors offers a lower risk of COVID-19 transmission. 

In fact, learning in nature, which is sometimes referred to as forest school, is not new. In Denmark and Italy, some schools have reopened during the pandemic, and students can spend as much of their day outdoors as possible under supervision. There’s no reason why nature-based pods cannot be tried in Hong Kong.

Given the understandable concerns about the potential health risks of such pandemic pods, the government should provide clear guidance and assistance to minimize their likely chains of transmission.

Philanthropists and corporates can also assist with funding and expertise to provide fun and safe learning experiences under carefully designed pandemic pod models. In the US, the Fresh Air Fund’s Summer Spaces program looks to provide free, safe, fun and supervised but enriching experiences all across the New York City’s outdoor spaces for children to enjoy this summer. 

We are living in unprecedented times. Research suggests educational disruption is affecting more than 1.5 billion learners globally. Until an effective vaccine is made universally available, we must improvise so that our children’s education and interpersonal development are not permanently impaired.

The author is a PR consultant and in a doctoral program in education. She also is the former director of communications of the Yidan Prize Foundation.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.