Problems and prospects of distance learning in the estimates provided by teachers and schoolchildren's parents

Appealing to the problem of distance learning at schools is caused by the urgent transfer of the educational process to a digital format against the background of the pandemic announced in March 2020 due to the spread of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in the world. Almost all national education systems in developed countries have been converted to online format. Despite the available experience and a certain readiness of the educational sphere to use distance learning, such a comprehensive mass transition to the “remote mode” could not but cause a number of problems both for the teaching corps and for students and their parents. The purpose of the research is to analyze the first results of distance learning at school in conditions of self-isolation due to the need to contain the spread of coronavirus infection in the country. Information base of the research are online surveys of teachers of the Vologda Oblast and school students' parents of the Republic of Bashkortostan, conducted in April-May 2020 by the Vologda Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Bashkir Branch of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The problems of distance learning are identified in a number of aspects: technical (lack of necessary equipment in households, quality of the Internet, reliability of educational platforms), organizational (lack of a unified methodology for online learning; increased workload for teachers; difficulties in conducting some creative and laboratory classes) and socio-cultural (reduced educational motivation of school children; high risks of children's health deterioration). The novelty of the research lies in a comprehensive assessment of the situation related to the processes of remote learning of a mass social group of schoolchildren in the context of a pandemic by two key actors of the education system - the teaching corps and parents, as well as in identifying the problems caused by the emergency transition to online learning. The practical significance of the study is in the formation of a knowledge base and grounds for making balanced and adequate management decisions both in the event of such emergency situations, and in the course of further implementation of the national development goals of the Russian Federation until 2030: digital transformation, achieving “digital maturity” of key sectors of the economy and social sphere, including education.