29. A New Curriculum and a Pandemic

Primary school teachers are at the frontlines of the Education 2.0 reforms. They are called to pivot from traditional classroom teaching to a more child-centered and activities-based pedagogy even though material conditions in their schools, with overcrowded classrooms, insufficient resources, and ageing infrastructures, remain the same. However, one difference compared to the past is that teachers can access new digital resources and consult the new comprehensive Teacher’s Guides about the new system. As teachers were adjusting to the reforms, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and teaching and learning went online. Through interviews with two primary school teachers from an urban and rural school, this chapter explores how teachers coped with the pandemic, where they turned for help, and how they navigated a system which offered them technical solutions but lacked the kinds of professional support and training they needed to ensure the well-being and positive learning outcomes of their students.