Page 49 - EDUCON 2022 Book of Abstracts

the reading abilities of second-grade learners from the perspective of
their teachers. Five schools were conveniently selected from the
Rundu circuit, and 18 teachers participated in focus group interviews.
The data were thematically analysed to identify developing patterns
and themes. The data reporting consisted of descriptions and direct
quotations.
Results: The study findings show that learners’ reading abilities such
as word recognition and phonemic awareness were below the
expected level for Grade 2 learners. The findings further indicate that
learners did not demonstrate reading with understanding (respond to
the text by laughing, asking for help, using assistive reading strategies,
i.e., using their finger to follow, and using strategies to decode (sound
out).
Conclusion: The Covid-19 pandemic has hampered the teaching and
learning in most schools globally. When teachers provide appropriate
reading resources and spend time to engage learners in shared and
guided reading to increase their reading abilities, it may improve their
reading comprehension.
Keywords: reading, COVID-19, teaching, learning, reading, Grade 2

12. Muhinda, S. Abah, J. & Kabuku, B.S., Investigation of
Challenges of teaching Natural Science during the Covid-19
pandemic in Katima Mulilo Circuit
Background: The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel
disease that spread very fast to almost all countries of the world,
prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the
outbreak a worldwide epidemic in March 2020. It affected almost
every life sector, and education was one of the sectors severely
affected. In most countries worldwide, the Covid-19 pandemic
mitigation measures introduced by the respective government changed

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