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    • Some students may face learning gaps after COVID-19-related school disruption, expert says

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    As students across Canada head back to school, one math education expert says many young learners may struggle with education gaps brought on by pandemic-related school closures in the past two and a half years.

    Vanessa Vakharia, who runs a math tutoring studio in Toronto, explains that a learning gap refers to a student’s missing some foundational knowledge that they should have learned previously in order to understand current material.

    "For example, you're in Grade 10 and you're factoring … and the kid realizes, 'I understand how to do this, but I'm not really that clear on how multiplication and division works and that's preventing me from understanding this current concept,'" Vakharia told CTV's Your Morning on Thursday.

    During COVID-19 restrictions that forced schools to move to online learning, Vakharia notes that many teachers weren't able to get through the whole curriculum and may have missed some units. At the same time, she says many students may have had to miss some classes due to their own pandemic-related reasons.

    "Maybe a student was sick for a couple of weeks, maybe a student really didn't succeed at online learning, so they kind of opted out for a couple of months or a couple of weeks," she told CTV's Your Morning. "Every student has these patches where they weren't really present in the classroom. And that means that every student has a different gap."

    WHAT TO DO IF YOUR CHILD HAS A LEARNING GAP

    Fortunately, Vakharia says learning gaps can be easily solved, but notes pinpointing the issue can be difficult for parents.

    "It's very hard to diagnose what the gap is as a parent and not a math teacher. So if you have a kid who's having that sensation of, 'I'm just not getting it, I'm struggling. I feel like I'm hitting this stumbling block…' that's when you can kind of say, 'There is a gap and we should kind of look into this,'" she explained.

    If you notice your child appears to be struggling with a subject, Vakharia recommends approaching the teacher first.

    "They are the expert in the classroom. They're the ones who can say, 'Okay, you know what I'm noticing on your kids test? It's that they really have no idea how to divide.' They can say something like that," she said.

    But if your child's teacher is too busy and overwhelmed to help, Vakharia suggests reaching out to another expert, such as a tutor, a family friend who's good at math, or a peer-tutoring program if your child's school has one.

    "I would get someone to help diagnose, to look at your kids test to see where they're going wrong, or to sit down with them, work a full problem out with them and figure out where there are some gaps," Vakharia said.

    "With gaps, it normally is just that. It's just a gap. It's not a pitfall, it's not a valley. It's a tiny gap," she added.  

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