The Benefits of Distance Education, During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Greek Teachers’ Opinions

Abstract

In Greece, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the schools' closure during the 2019-2020 school year. The Ministry of Education tried to develop online platforms so that the students could have access to education. The use of distance learning came to the fore. The teachers used the online teaching tools available as a response to this challenging situation. Nevertheless, most of them had not received any relevant training and had at their disposal minimal resources, mainly of their own and not public ones. A nationwide survey was designed investigating teachers' views on distance learning benefits. 515 teachers working in Greek primary education sector - both at kindergartens and primary schools- participated in the research. Their answers show three main benefits from the distance learning implementation at school education: (a), it enabled some students to access school education. Those students could not otherwise attend school education (b) it contributed to the communication among students as well as between students and teachers, and (c) it increased the ICT use by teachers. Despite these benefits mentioned, teachers stated that distance learning is not a substitute for ordinary classes and face-to-face learning.