Discussion on Lim's (2002) socio-cultural view

In my context, this is how Lim’s Garden Metaphor can be explained

Society at Large:  

The society is currently facing unprecedented challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Everybody is under lockdown, every person confined to his or her place of residence. A person may only leave their place of residence to perform an essential or permitted service, buy permitted goods or obtain services that are allowed to operate.

Gatherings are banned, enabling the practicing social distancing. Churches closed; weddings are banned.

People are frustrated and are stressed out by being confined to houses and having nothing to do. Parents would have preferred that their children be at school because they have to exercise discipline themselves now and help them themselves to continue studying at home. Some families are even complaining about the shortage of food for kids at home as they were getting food from school.

Education System:  

COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the education system. Governments have temporarily closed educational institutions in an attempt to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ministry has also talked about suspending June and September holidays and a recovery plan to be put in place. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced educational communities across to adapt to a new way of remote learning and teaching in order to keep up with the 2020 school year, as there is no face to face teaching anymore. The Department of Education is trying, by all means, to make some interventions like offering online lessons through a virtual classroom, for grade 12 learners in my Province. Other grades are catered for in TV and radio lesson broadcast; but not everybody is benefiting from this intervention as some learners do not have the tools to access these classes. Some rural areas do not have electricity, and also the signal is very bad. This is a wakeup call to the authorities in education to implement both face to face and online teaching and learning at the same time and not treat them separately, and also resource learning institutions equally and try and close the gaps. COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the inequalities in our society.

School Level:

Schools are temporarily closed, parents at home have to play the role of being educators to their children, getting advice from educators and online learning platforms to carry on with the curriculum. Teaching and learning moving to online homeschooling.

In this regard also not, every parent can do this, because of their level of education and some cannot afford the devices and data costs. Schools have to come up with curriculum recovery plans to catch up the lost time. The closure of schools not only interrupts teaching for learners but assessment and exams have to postponed due to lockdown.

Course of study:

Parents, teachers, and learners are using online learning platforms to access their curriculum and learn whilst at home, the parents help their kids with the online learning process. Learners are accessing the curriculum through virtual classes, TV Broadcasts, and radio lessons.

Activity system: All the elements in the activity triangle are working together towards an educational objective, which is use of online learning tools for online teaching and learning.