Academia's role in hospitality & tourism during the uncontrollable situation

Hospitality college students are also highly affected by the COVID-19 epidemic which has fractured their learning experience, making it unsustainable and chaotic. In an unexpected turn of events, the learning environment has rapidly changed from in-person and classroom sessions to distant learning.

Apart from this unprecedented disruption to studying, students are also undergoing financial hardships, as well as facing emotional and psychological distress. This is also not the time to frustrate teachers and make them equal sufferers in the pandemic. It is therefore imperative that those who manage Hospitality and Tourism educational institutes react instantly by making the necessary changes to their methods, teaching modes, and strategies, both during after the crisis.

Providing a teacher with the wherewithal and required resources to adapt to the altered educational conditions in a timely manner is mandatory. It was only the other day I heard a lecturer of a premier government-run hospitality institute lament that they were not been given the vital tools for distance teaching. However, despite these obstacles, he was conducting classes using Zoom technology on his own initiative. This made me sad, yet glad that we still have teachers who care, unlike lapdog bureaucrats who don’t.

This disappointing situation begs the question “Have hospitality institutes responded properly to overcome these challenges adequately?” If yes, then what are the strategies and solutions now being developed and adjusted to prepare students and faculty staff, to sustainably survive during and after the COVID-19 crisis? Can the Head of the hospitality institute confirm the following:-

1. During the war with terrorists, whenever there were disruptions to schools from conducting classes, Principals wrote to Parents of every student, outlining the schools’ plans to overcome the disruption). Was this done?
2. Were all students who were following courses that were abruptly stopped, advised that the institute is taking steps to resume some form of teaching including distance learning opportunities, etc.?
3. Have the students been clearly told about what this transmission means for their class?
4. Do the students know what software to download?
5. How can students get in touch with the school, and will the school be providing virtual office hours?
6. How successful has the transition to online teaching been, for all students with the active participation of the faculty lecturers?
7. Is there a mechanism to obtain student feedback both on programmes and course level, to implement improvements based on the feedback.
8. Has the hotel school explored ways and means to compensate students for the missed experience and are thinking of alternative practical experiences at a later stage of their studies? (Examples to consider: gastronomy classes & power workshops, hotel visits, alternative outdoor leadership experience and organizing lunches and dinners within the 6 feet concept).

If as the head of a hospitality and tourism school you cannot tick a minimum of six (06) of the above, as ‘done that’, please vacate your position and go home.

A sign that the institute has failed in some form or another to overcome the above challenges, is when one reads on the alumni’s Facebook, of students asking each other “when is the school reopening?” or “Has anyone heard of what’s going on?”

Education institutes have not yet been given a date for opening or relaxing measures. Nevertheless, the hotel school can prepare itself for a reopening that can be done in small steps at a time for the safe, phased return of students, faculty members and employees to the premises.

Obviously, the return to the new normalcy will require embracing the safety protocols including social distancing. This is likely to put pressure on the space capability, restricting the number of students within the premises at any given time.

Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier

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