What It’s Like Going To School During COVID-19

Siddharth Mazumdar, who we interviewed earlier this year for inventing an AI-powered gadget before age 16, is 17, a student at St. Andrew’s Junior College in Singapore, and about to take his A-Levels this year.  We asked him how COVID-19 has affected his school life. 

Q: Hi Sidd, welcome back! Let’s talk today about how COVID-19’s been going for you. To start, when did you first notice COVID-19 and what did you think about it then?  

A: I noticed it when it was being mentioned on the news as this new epidemic in China. I thought that it would be restricted to China, much like the Swine Flu outbreak. The high virulence of Covid wasn’t as well-known then and it really seemed as though it was not much more than a cold.

When did you really start to worry about COVID-19 and what did you do in response to that? 

When Covid started spreading rapidly in Italy, I started to get more worried as it showed that it was not a regional thing at all and could easily come to Singapore. The full extent of its virulence was also established and so were its effects on the elderly population, which made me even more concerned about it wreaking havoc here.

How did your routines change when schools were shut for “circuit breaker” measures?

For one, I could sleep a bit more, which was quite needed. Beyond that, what we saw was that interaction decreased quite a bit and we had more lectures and assignments than before, so learning was much more self-directed. There were also much fewer collaborative sessions like class discussions as those were harder to conduct online.

How effective do you think home-based learning is? Did you or your classmates run into any problems because of it? 

In terms of absolute effectiveness, I don’t think it’s any better or worse. What changes is the shifting of responsibility, where instead of teachers constantly guiding and scaffolding, we have to take greater initiative in our learning. Technical problems were common at the start but they subsided eventually, the main issue was that many people lost their focus and thus were lost when coming back to school.

What about when Singapore reopened schools? How did your routines change again then and how did that affect you and your classmates? 

We had slightly later reporting times and had to wear masks throughout the day. Instead of before where we used to keep changing venues and moving around, we were confined to one classroom for the day, which led to a cabin fever of sorts. Days were initially very long-drawn but the school took our feedback into account and put lectures on a view at home basis, which helped us significantly. 

How different is going to school now compared to pre-COVID-19 days? What do you miss most about the old days and what do you like most about the new days?

I miss being able to walk around the school between classes as that always used to energise me. I like that the days are shorter now, which means we have more freedom to draw up and act on self-study plans.

How does it feel to have to attend school with a mask on the whole time? Are there any on the ground “cheats” students use to make the experience more comfortable? 

It can definitely be a challenge, but it gets quite a bit better with time. To make it more comfortable we can do a few things: (1) look for a sports mask, this decreases the humidity under the mask and makes it more breathable, (2) go outside when drinking water, that way you get fresh air and also reduce the chance of contamination in class, (3) while I personally don’t, many also suffer from acne due to the mask and thus regularly rinsing the face with water after coming home is helpful

How do you think COVID-19 will affect your grades, especially since you’re taking a significant exam later this year? 

I can’t really predict that but I think that, in general, it shouldn’t have too adverse an effect.

How do you think COVID-19 will affect your future career and living prospects? 

Well, for career, it’s been deeply inconvenient for me as I had received a few invitations to do installations of the Newton’s Meter System in the Middle East, however, at the time of writing travel restrictions still have not eased and so neither my team nor I can go there. For living, well, I’d always thought of remaining in Singapore and COVID-19 has, if anything, solidified that as I think we handled community spread very well.

You’re a school councillor in charge of planning the orientation programme for new students, so how did you and your fellow councillors manage that this year with all the restrictions related to the pandemic in place? 

As regulations were changing by the day, we had to stay back after the day’s events to plan for the next’s and hope that no drastic changes were taken in the meantime. In general, the programme was significantly shortened and many external events and games had to be scaled down. While this meant that there were less activities, being in small groups also meant that we could interact and bond with each other a lot more.

Do you think new students are missing out on anything by joining a new school during a pandemic? 

Not really. I think they definitely do face a new challenge from the get-go, having to adjust to both the e-learning style and their new school’s style contemporaneously, but I wouldn’t really say that’s missing out. In fact, it could forge adaptability. However, that’s only the academic side. In general they will be able to interact with their friends less and may not have as much of a support system.

Do you feel like you’re missing out on anything as a young person no longer able to go out for big events in big groups or sing karaoke? To what extent has digital technology made up for those? 

To a small degree, yes. Eating together as a large group was always nice as we could listen to everyone’s experiences and learn from each other and that really helped us de-stress. Fundamentally though, most of the important events can generally be translated to an online platform. Personally, I did an international presentation for the Pitch-Your-Product award and attended Mensa Singapore’s AGM online.

What have you learned from this pandemic that you didn’t know before? 

Crucially, that it is better to err on the side of caution when it comes to health. At the start, we were unsure as to whether we should wear masks or not but if we had all just elected to do so, spread would be reduced.

Second, premeditatio malorum, always consider adverse scenarios. While adaptability may be a great virtue, without preparation, we only make it more difficult for ourselves. Case in point, while the SAF did a great job in rehousing the migrant workers, if we had certain safety measures in place in the dormitories beforehand, we could have stopped clusters from forming.

Lastly, if you could be the one in charge of planning how schools operate during COVID-19, how would you plan it? Which procedures would you keep and which procedures would you improve upon? 

I would definitely keep the temperature screening procedures and staggered recess times, but in terms of reopening, I’d try to limit the days that people are in school as we did in the earlier stages. I also think that along with the supply of masks that we have, we could also carry out immediate swab testing of any symptomatic student in the school premises itself, instead of just advising them to see a doctor. I’d also definitely keep the regular cleaning of tables and chairs and wearing masks at all times.

Sidd hopes to be getting his gadget, Newton’s Meter into new markets next year, and carry out more trials and installations. Beyond that, he’s thinking of looking into having predictive online systems that facilitate learning based on inclination and progressive ability. “I had conceptualised this in my group during Pre-U Sem last year and could go further with it once my exams are over.” You can find out more about him on Instagram @aceofcucumbers or chat with him using the comment box below. 

Other interviews with Sidd:
How I Invented An AI-Powered Gadget Before Age 16

More interviews with people affected by COVID-19 here.

Photographs courtesy and copyright of Siddharth Mazumdar. Interviewer: Sy
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