A Crisis or structural violence? Education during covid 19 lockdown: a case of Epworth rural communities

Abstract

Education has been declared a human right from the time of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The necessity for this human right to be provided for all and equally is very important. This is not only to ensure that learners have the same opportunity to learn but also to allow for personal development which will likely cause innovation, which will lead to sustainable development and consequently sustainable peace. This research was necessitated by the Covid 19 crisis that saw most of the world go on lockdown as a way of controlling the spread of the virus. This lockdown included the closure of schools for months. Mixed research was done using both lockdown qualitative and quantitative techniques. A case study survey was done using Epworth rural community. The main findings being that the COVID-19 pandemic did in fact affect education in vulnerable communities. It was however, observed that most of the effects were mainly based on the various forms of structural violence that already existed in the schools in vulnerable communities. As other scholars mentioned that sometimes structural violence is not noticed the way that direct violence can be seen, the lockdown exposed a lot of this structural violence in rural schools. From the poor infrastructure, lack of technology and other disparities that exist between rural schools and urban schools. Based on the findings of this research, the researcher recommends that the Government of Zimbabwe make education a priority, as it affects all facets of the political, economic, social, and technological systems. School authorities and parents should also take active roles in trying to develop the schools.