INADEQUACIES IN TEACHER PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT DURING THE COVID-19 DISRUPTION IN KENYA

The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruption in the education ecosystem, whose magnitude the country was not prepared for. This was further aggravated by the paradigm shift that required teachers to transition to online teaching, which aroused anxiety and uncertainty, leading to psychological trauma, besides the pressure from other aftermaths of the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychosocial well-being was a critical aspect with regard to the support that was given to teachers during this period. This paper, therefore, documents the inadequacies in teacher psychosocial support during the COVID-19 disruption in Kenya. It is based on the Responses to Educational Disruption Survey (REDS) data from the national centre, school principals’ and teachers’ questionnaires. This paper was guided by the Psychosocial Theory (PsT) and the Theory of Change (ToC) as they articulated the policy and practice, thus informing teacher psychosocial support. The Psychosocial Theory supported the discourse on teachers’ psychological, mental and emotional support. At the same time, the ToC was instrumental in explaining the drastic change from face-to-face to online teaching that had adverse effects on teachers’ well-being. The psychosocial support exposes several inadequacies that may have compounded teachers’ inability to implement effective transition to online teaching. Globally, governments and relevant stakeholders devised various strategies to support teachers’ well-being through relevant plans and policies. The Government of Kenya (GoK) took initiatives to build resilience towards teachers’ psychosocial well-being in order to accelerate change to online teaching and learning. Some of these measures, inter alia, included social distancing between adults, smaller class sizes, an increased number of staff, and supplementing face-to-face teaching with online teaching, as per the REDS data. At the school level, psychosocial well-being provided was deficient, as most of the services that were required by staff during the COVID-19 disruption were unavailable. In addition, changes were also made to school policies since schools are the institutions where teaching and learning take place. Over 75% of Principals agreed that there were changes in school policies revolving around the mechanism proposed by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on curbing the spread of COVID-19. The psychosocial well-being influences teacher training, without which the government is unlikely to equip teachers adequately to deal with curriculum implementation and especially transition to online teaching. According to the REDS data on teachers’ psychosocial well-being, minimal support was also given to teachers in dealing with fatigue, interrupted sleep patterns and a sense of isolation. Teachers lacked support for social events, accommodations for teachers who are primary carers, links to information on mental health services, and access to physical activity resources. The GoK, through the Ministry of Education, needs to deliberately address the inadequacies in teacher psychosocial support as identified in the REDS data.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0859/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>