Survey highlights importance of face-to-face learning

<h2>In a year in which the COVID pandemic has forced school closures and education disruptions worldwide&comma; New Zealand students and parents are reinforcing the importance of face-to-face contact when it comes to learning in the classroom and for positive mental health&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>In a recent Cambridge International survey of students and parents&comma; more than half of respondents &lpar;53&percnt;&rpar; said long-term online or virtual learning&comma; in addition to face-to-face learning&comma; does have its advantages&period; Only 8&percnt; said it made no difference and 31&percnt; said there were no advantages&period; When asked what areas of the curriculum they would value online&comma; 43&percnt; said lessons and 69&percnt; said tutorials&comma; with the most enjoyable aspects of the curriculum being coursework &lpar;39&percnt;&rpar; and classwork &lpar;32&percnt;&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Roger Franklin-Smith&comma; senior country manager for Cambridge Assessment International Education&comma; said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;What came through clearly in the survey was that students preferred the delivery of lessons to happen in the classroom&comma; whereas supporting activities like tutorials could be done online&period; Students enjoy the face-to-face interaction and collaboration with their peers and teachers&comma; and it is important for overall mental health&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are yet to see the full impact of the pandemic on student mental health&comma; but early indications suggest the impact will be significant&period; The Ministry of Education has recently allocated &dollar;14&period;9 million from a &dollar;50 million fund to help students struggling with the impacts of the pandemic and Cambridge International has received lots of requests to support student wellbeing&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In response&comma; Cambridge International recently hosted a webinar to support students with their mental health and wellbeing during this period of uncertainty&period; The webinar explored the impact that students are currently experiencing&semi; particularly loss and uncertainty&comma; as well as identifying the positives they are facing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The survey results also highlighted the importance of having a broad range of subjects in the curriculum for students to choose from&period; Almost 90&percnt; said that having a broad range of subjects to choose from was important&comma; and respondents identified their favourite subjects as mathematics&comma; biology and physics&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The survey was carried out by Cambridge International between August and October 2020 and involved of 95 students&colon; the majority of which were Cambridge International students&comma; but also some studying NCEA&period;  A total of 89 parents and caregivers were also included in the survey&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;