After getting ideas about admission procedure and different English entrance exam through our previous blogs, students are eager to join the UK Universities. Unfortunately, for several weeks, in the face of the rapid spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the educational system worldwide has been on hiatus as also the UK universities. Colleges and learning centres of all levels around the world have cancelled classes and evicted all of their students following the issued health emergency warning. The transfer of sessions to online mode has been the most viable alternative for many institutions. Although the change towards virtual platforms is in itself a quite complex challenge, this scenario is potentiated for those in a state of greater vulnerability. If we add to this context, the persistent stigma and indifference assigned to spaces such as educational centres in prisons, the future of learning for the individuals who make up this community becomes exceptionally uncertain. Talking about these students in forgotten systems, for which learning via the Internet is not an option, means illuminating an empathy constantly denied because of the social space that has been pre-assigned to them. However, a particular obstacle to the discussion around this educational entity is the lack of resources that exist for its analysis.

How do educational systems work in prisons in the United Kingdom?

Dozens of UK Universities, both public and private, see the continuity of classes through digital platforms as a light not to delay student schedules and keep them academically active. Now education is transferred without hesitation to homes, where the preventive isolation measure for the coronavirus pandemic is being met.

At home, but studying. Thus, the next few weeks will pass for millions of children, adolescents and young people in dozens of American, Iranian, Argentine and Colombian cities, after the authorities of their nations suspended classes as a preventive measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Although the sessions will be held far from the conventional classrooms, from the desks and the laughter of their colleagues, the educational programs will continue to be the same, in an administrative committee that aims to prevent the expansion of this outbreak, which since 11 March was characterized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) given the speed of its spread, but not its lethality, truncating student learning.

But not only the pre-school, primary and secondary education schemes will be those that have online workshops to promote progress in understanding the contents during the stay of minors at home, but also undergraduate and postgraduate university students.

The United Kingdom authorities have announced the closure of all schools in the country starting this Friday and indefinitely as a measure to contain the coronavirus pandemic, which has already left 4,313 dead in the country.

The move, which has been announced by British Education Minister Gavin Williamson, has been confirmed shortly after by Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a press conference. As indicated, the classrooms will remain open, however, for children who are in a “vulnerable” situation and the children of “essential” workers, such as police officers, delivery people and members of the medical staff, among others.

For Williamson, who hopes that private schools and universities will adopt the same measure, the risk posed by the pandemic to the United Kingdom has varied, so leaving schools open is now “much more dangerous”, according to information from the local newspaper ‘The Guardian’.

Besides, the government will make available a series of “redeemable food stamps” to cover the feeding of minors now that they do not use the school canteens. For Johnson, it is time to apply new “pressure” measures in an attempt to reduce the disease transmission curve. Therefore, he stressed that the National Health Service (NHS), must move forward.

Johnson, who stressed that the selectivity exams would not be held this year, has taken the opportunity to ask parents not to leave their children with grandparents and older people since they are a “risk group” against COVID- 19. “I know this is difficult,” he said before thanking all those who do their best to comply with the established measures.

Downing Street scientific adviser Patrick Vallance has asserted that the measures announced by the government this week are already affecting the behaviour of the population. Vallance, who stressed that further action would be necessary, emphasized that it is “vitally important” to ensure that the NHS intensive care units are not overwhelmed.

In this sense, he affirmed that schools “are not dangerous places for children”, but he assured that the measures are required to stop the transmission of the virus and delay this process. Furthermore, Johnson has reassured the rental population and has guaranteed that the government will protect tenants.

In response to the demands of a large sector of the population, especially the Labour Party, the Prime Minister explained that “they will carry out the necessary legislation to help tenants and prevent them from being evicted.” “We cannot penalize people for doing the right thing or for the economic problems that may arise from the direct measures taken by the government to protect the population,” he said. On this matter, he has promised that “the people who are affected by this deserve the protection and support” of the government.

Crises Are Setting Precedent For Distance Learning!

Furthermore, by redirecting reading and education plans to remote processes, more accessible for government institutions to manage, there is a fear in the community that the way programs respond in the current scenario will set a precedent anyway for distance education in the future. The great concern continues as, for now, all efforts directed at these communities are prioritizing the alternatives that will have to be generated for health services and prevention of contagion in these very vulnerable spaces.

The process that is being lived hopes to open the door to the learning opportunities that are offered to this area of ​​the population, to improve in the future the distribution of education in prisons in the United States and Mexico. Increasing access to information and technological resources, as mentioned by the organization Ithaka SR, would give these programs much greater flexibility in the future and provide students with a more prosperous and more equitable and proper educational experience. In the time of this crisis, it is an excellent opportunity for those penitentiaries and prisons that do not have an established and adequate educational model, to promote the search for proactive educational solutions for this area of ​​our community.