The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemics on Schools: Challenges and New Opportunities for a Woman-Owned Organization

Abstract

The world-wide COVID-19 pandemic situation has had a significant impact on the everyday work of organizations, including private educational institutions. In the proposed study, the authors focus on how a private school providing pre-primary, primary, and secondary education has faced the biggest challenges of these times - 1) in compliance with its mission, to provide children and youth with high quality education regardless the circumstances; 2) to take advantage of the situation, i.e. to find the best possible alternatives and so, be one step ahead of its competitors; and 3) as being partially dependent on school fees, not to lose paying customers. After a thorough consideration of alternatives, the school – as one of few in Slovakia – opted for offering the whole educational program online only several days after all schools were closed in the country.

The purpose of the study is to provide an example of good practice for other – not only woman-owned – organizations and to support the real efficiency of the applied approach by relevant data. The authors of the study carried out a questionnaire survey with the school’s students, the students’ parents, and the whole teaching staff, focusing on their overall satisfaction with the realized online education, their experiences and opinions, as well as their attitudes towards e-learning in secondary schools in general. The questionnaire survey was a part of a larger research focusing on distance learning strategies applied during school closures in Slovakia. In the study, topic relevant research findings are presented, which indicate that the pandemics has not had a negative impact on this particular educational institution and this woman-owned business has even found new opportunities for its future work.