Engl. transl.: Assessing the impact of distance learning in an electronic environment or other absentee forms on the effectiveness of school education

The main goal of this study is to assess the impact of distance learning in an electronic environment or other absentee forms, conducted in the period March-June 2020, on the effectiveness of school education in Bulgaria. The specific tasks before the research are: (i) Development of a methodology for assessing the impact of distance learning in an electronic environment or other absentee forms on the effectiveness of school education; (ii) Preparation of a toolkit for conducting a survey among school principals, teachers, parents and students, through which to collect, systematize and analyze data and information on the resource provision of distance learning, its organization and conduct, and the achieved results of three levels - school, class and individual level; (iii) Organizing and conducting research among school principals, teachers, parents and students throughout the country; (iv) Processing and analysis of the collected data; (v) Preparation of a report on the impact assessment of distance learning in an electronic environment or other absentee forms on the effectiveness of school education. The survey is conducted on a sample prepared on the basis of complete data on the school system in Bulgaria, provided by the Center for Information Provision of Education at the Ministry of Education and Science. The sample is prepared in a way that adequately reflects the structure of the school system in Bulgaria ratio of students in the target group. The data is collected in July 2020.

Overall, at the time of the termination of the in-person learning process on 13 March 2020, 54% of schools were ready to provide distance learning in an electronic environment. At the same time, one third of them were not prepared at all for the transition to distance learning in an electronic environment; half of these schools are located in villages. The majority of students have an electronic device in their home that they can use for educational purposes. The share of students who communicate in their home in Romani and Turkish, and have their own computer and Internet, is significantly smaller compared to the share of students for whom Bulgarian is their mother tongue. Data on the availability of electronic learning devices in households in villages and towns differ significantly too. Over 80% of parents in the cities indicate that their child has their own electronic device for educational purposes, and in the villages - about 66%. Every seventh parent indicated that they could not provide access to electronic device for your child's learning purposes. More than half of the children in families with low socio-economic status do not have an electronic device for educational purposes. Synchronous education is conducted in 71% of schools in large cities; in 79% of the schools in the small towns and only in 46% of the schools in the villages. In about 30% of schools, no teacher has received additional qualifications to work with e-learning platforms and resources in the last three years. About 69% of parents believe that teachers have succeeded in teaching in an electronic environment in a way that students can understand. The level of digital competencies of teachers is cited as a source of inefficiency by 1/5 of the principals. In about 8% of schools, only applications (Viber, Messenger) and social networks (Facebook, Instagram) were used for educational purposes. Almost one in four students (about 27%) said they had difficulty working with technology. Almost half of the students who communicate at home in Romani and 34% in Turkish say they have had difficulty working with electronic devices. The survey data show that students spent an average of about 5 hours a day in front of the screen on an electronic device, performing activities related to the learning process. Those who spent more than 6 hours a day are almost 40%. VIII and IX grade students spent the longest time working with electronic devices, performing activities related to the learning process. About 88% of students participated in classes relatively regularly - every day or most days. The younger students were the most regular - from 5th to 8th grade. Half of the teachers point out that some students often did not stay fully in the online classes, and in the classes of 40% of the teachers there were regularly absent students. 4% of parents indicate that their children have participated in virtual lessons only occasionally; 2% - very rarely. Around half of the parents found it more difficult to help their child when he / she did not cope with the learning material than in the present training. About 37% of the teachers state that their students did not have difficulties in mastering the studied material. About 88% of students indicate that they have been assessed by tests or written tests in another format. About 70% of them received marks for their participation during online classes. Again, about 77% received evaluations for project implementation. The data show that every fifth student has low behavioral engagement; every fourth - low emotional engagement and almost a third of students show low cognitive engagement. Behavioral and emotional engagement decreases sharply in high school students. Only 23% of parents indicated that their children were more interested in distance learning. Every fifth parent believes that their children have shown higher motivation in distance learning compared to face-to-face learning. The data show that only half of the students are satisfied with the way the distance learning process was organized and conducted. Similarly, half of the parents expressed satisfaction with the way the distance learning was conducted. A very small proportion of teachers are fully convinced that distance learning has been more effective than face-to-face learning in terms of student outcomes.