2021 Volume 12 Pages 85-98
The objective of this study is to understand the extent to which the implementation of emergency distance learning under COVID-19 brought changes to higher education in Madagascar, with a particular focus on disparity. Participant observation, an online questionnaire survey with 38 students, and interviews with 24 students were conducted at the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Antananarivo. The results showed that Malagasy higher education institutions implemented emergency distance learning with the means they had mostly based on teachers’ initiatives. Contents typically taught face to face had to be compressed and adapted to an online medium to be taught in a limited time. Such settings highlighted the existing disparities among students and revealed the ones whose voices are rarely heard. While the tight schedule of a university is generally considered to be too inflexible for working students, their work proved to be vital for their ability to continue studying, which has little to do with lack of maturity as highlighted in previous studies. It was also shown that students who differ from the majority, such as those who have health issues or the slow learners, are also reluctant to assert themselves in class, which might necessitate a reconsideration of the relationship between students and instructors in Malagasy universities.
