VIRTUAL: Applying Education

Abstract

The primary aim of this study was to identify the mental health difficulties of South African adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic and determine the need for resiliency-based education programmes. Data was collected through a questionnaire completed by 4230 grades 4 to 12 learners from two provinces in South Africa (Mpumalanga, North-West) and analyzed with chi-square, Cramer’s V, Bayesian, and the odds ratio tests. The results indicate that fear was the most prominent difficulty experienced, but it must be viewed as a comorbidity with anxiety, stress, and depression. Fears were related to not coping with schoolwork due to the lockdown and losing family members. A significant finding was that the difficulties experienced were gender, age, and school level specific. Based on the findings the author argues that school education should include resiliency-based programmes that prepare children for future crisis situations, learning from the COVID-19 pandemic. The author advocates a multilevel systems approach that is inter- and -transdisciplinary in nature in the designing of resiliency-based programmes. The South African experience could provide lessons on resiliency-based education programmes that are likely to have global value.