Winning essay within the global campaign “Protect Our Education”, developed by Save the Children.

It was March 2020 when the news of the spread of the Covid 19 virus in Kosovo began to circulate. It was a time of panic, stress and anxiety in our home. No one was well informed about what this virus is, where it comes from or how to protect ourselves. In this state, we were like in a fog and we were all hovering in the air not knowing where to walk while some people were just flying. It was said that those who are most likely to ascend to heaven are the elderly, those who suffered from various diseases and this raised stress and anxiety for my loved ones. I lived with my grandparents and brother with a disability and the fear of this virus was twofold. When I remember this time I remember a difficult period, not that comfortable and with a psychic load and I immediately think of the lesson that took place. This time, unlike the other days when I woke up, I was not getting ready for school. This time I turned on the phone because the lesson was taking place online. Online education carried with it a series of problems. I was in 9th grade and the school I attended failed to manage this in the right way and at the right time. We started attending online tutoring quite late. The whole educational process remains at the will of the teachers individually. Not managed so well, online learning went in a chaotic manner. We taught some subjects through lectures on television, which were prepared quite late, but the lessons that were broadcast on TV often did not match the lessons we had stuck with our teachers in schools and sometimes not even with the books we had! Some other teachers informed me with a message about what we have to do and gave me the responsibility to inform the whole generation about these tasks, we then had to perform the tasks without any explanation on them. How did you understand a physics task without anyone explaining it to me ?! Then, the photos of the assignments (which were performed only formally) as evidence had to be collected by the whole generation and forwarded to me again by the teacher. It was responsibility and a lot of stress! The time for sending the assignments was set, my phone was overloaded and did not work! Just because I was an exemplary student no one cared if I had a lot of mental burden and could not cope with these responsibilities! Often times my willpower went to such a low level that I thought it best not to learn at all, with grades in the end I am equal to students who are not trying at all and are calmer! Because if there is one thing that has not worked online at all it has been the evaluation!

We developed a subject through the classroom, when we opened the document sent by the teacher was the page of the book and the tasks to be performed. It was very difficult to understand in this way, in the books we had them all at home but we lacked explanations, lectures and help from teachers, but no one was late whether or not we were understanding the learning unit or not! I once tried to contact the teacher about the clarification of the tasks but to this day I still have not received an answer! We only kept it through the zoom for an hour, but in that hour we kept all the classes of the generation together. I can say that this lesson was better understood because the teacher was explaining and I could communicate with him. However, with about 100 students in a class there was noise, problems, bullying, not comfort and not seriousness! Yes, yes, during this time when we did not miss the phones, online harassment has increased! But no one from the school staff or other educational mechanisms at the local or central level is worried about this! And some subjects we have not developed at all! There are learning units never left that will penalize our further education! There was no proper management by the school management, there was no supervision whether the classes are taking place or not even by the MEDs! But the main task was the Ministry of Education. The essential shortcoming was the common platform where we could develop all the subjects in the same place and where several different forms of teaching are involved. This common national platform should include easy access, multifunctionality, the opportunity for presentations, for chat, to talk, to have interactivity, to contact the teacher, to present our tasks, to listen to lectures not only in that hour when it is held but also afterwards, to have space for entertainment, different quizzes and to be as comprehensive as possible. For this platform we had to work in time TOGETHER with the children. More commitment was also needed in the field of psychological care for students during online learning. I was stunned in the middle of a crossroads full of roads around and it seemed to me that vehicles would come quickly from all sides towards me and I would not know where to stop. It was the pandemic, it was the online learning, it was the achievement test and I was still undecided about running the best school