Martin Cole-
Parents in Nigeria are still struggling with the task of home schooling their children throughout school closures caused by the pandemic.
It is now over six months since the Nigerian government ordered the shutdown of schools to control the spread of the coronavirus. The government has now ordered the re-opening of schools, but not all schools have re-opened due to their inability to meet up to safety requirements as demanded by the World Health Organisation(WHO), and put in place by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 for safe reopening.
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Safety measures expected in place before reopening include temperature checking thermometers, a COVID-19 infantry, face masks and adequate maintenance of social distancing. Several schools are unable to meet up with those safety demands and guidelines, meaning the pressure on parents to home school their children continues after months of disruption to academic sessions have been disrupted for students at primary, secondary, and university levels.
Secondary school pupils can often get on with their work on their own, especially if they have a decent background from their various primary schools.
In the meantime, UNICEF, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and other stakeholders in the North East are meeting with the ministry for guidelines on schools’ resumption.
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At a North East Zonal Meeting in Bauchi yesterday, the minister said that the closure of schools affected the education sector negatively.
Ms Kemi Alabi, a 38 year old accountant from Lagos, explained the challenge of having to home school her 10 year old child during the many months of school closures. ” I just could not leave my son to his own devices, and there are not many cheap tutors around during the many months of school closures.
The few good tutors available were charging a lot of money per hour, because they know the demand for tutors is high. Only a few people can afford good tutors in Nigeria, especially when schools were closed.
”I have had to help my son with his literature and history work on more than a weekly basis, otherwise his education would suffer as the months go by, she said”. Their schools expect them to be continuing their education at home, because they cannot afford to lose all those months”.
The Nigerian government and administrators expected the shutdown to be brief, enough to contain the spread of the virus and return to normal life. On Monday, the Federal Government directed the re-opening of schools nationwide, but added that the final decision rested on state’s preparedness and commitment to all safety measures
The minister of state for education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, issued a warning yesterday at the opening of North West zonal stakeholders’ meeting on schools’ re-opening dialogue in Kano.
Nwajiuba reminded states to ensure strict adherence to the implementation of the template. Schools have reopened in Lagos, Kano, Ekiti, Ogun, and many others are scheduled to resume soon.
Nwajiuba, expressed regret in losses to student’s education since the lockdown six months ago, but insisted that states must ensure strict adherence to the implementation of the template.
Uncoordinated
Nigeria’s pandemic control measures are notorious for being uncoordinated, leading to communal infections and an increasing number of confirmed cases. Although the country went under lockdown for over four weeks, it was widely considered to be ineffective as health authorities were unable to ramp up testing.
Nigeria’s already poor population was unable to adhere to the lockdown rules because of the effects of their sources of livelihood. The lockdown has long been eased, but the decision to keep most schools closed is putting pressure on parents in Nigeria to home school their children.
They don’t want their education to be stagnated. Nigerian students have shown a willingness to work from home, but many millions have been affected by having very limited access to the internet.
The Nigerian government provided palliatives and relief funding, but not everybody benefited adequately from it. Some students have kept themselves reading books at home in the day, using the sunlight when there is a power cut, but those kids who cannot afford books and have no access to internet, will rot away in aimless activities many days in the week, while their parents are at work.
Many parents are having to sacrifice time after work to home school their children, while some feel the pressure to take time off work to home school their children.
Out of school e-learning
Many schools in Nigeria lack both the resources and the facilities to do so. Without in-person learning, the academic sessions of many primary, secondary, and tertiary schools have been disrupted. And this is taking a toll on their income.
Except for a few private schools, many secondary and primary school staff including teachers have not received pay since April. Some teachers have posted videos online pleading for financial assistance as they endure an uncertain period. Patricia Makinde told the Eye Of Media.Com: ” it has been a challenge for my children and many others I know. Not many teachers were willing to offer tuition to other people’s children, as they were busy teaching their own children, to make sure they don’t fall behind too far.
”With the extensive material some of the schools have as part of their curriculum, it is plain obvious that unless you keep your child up to date with their reading and ensure their understanding of the material, they will be lost in the new term. I had to set my two children of 12 and 10 work to do when I am working in the day, and spend time going over it with them for a few hours when I return in the evening. It was challenging, but a sacrifice I had to make”
Income Levels
The pandemic has had a knock on income levels, forcing children in some low-income families could join the workforce to supplement their family income. Over the last months, schools in Nigeria have kept up the pressure f to maintain their academic calendars online.
Many schools have developed e-learning systems to manage learning activities for their students during this period. Classes are conducted using Google Classrooms and Zoom.
The more tech-savvy families are turning to edtech solutions like uLessons, a subscription-based e-learning platform. Launched in February, uLessons has been downloaded over 250,000 times according to Quartz. Sim Shagaya, founder and CEO of the company, said paid subscribers have surged nearly 5x between March and August.
At the tertiary level, some universities, mostly private, have switched to e-learning since April. However, with devices like laptops and smartphones being very expensive for millions of Nigerian families, many have to manage the limited spaces at internet cafes. And that assumes those internet cafes have unlimited power supply in the form of generators in order to avoid the typical occurrence of power shortage which can ruin study plans.
In April, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) was charged with the task of addressing some of these problems. The agency set up a committee to provide actionable plans. The committee recommended a partnership with telecom companies to introduce free access to educational websites and resources. Four months after the committee tabled its recommendations. no action had been taken.
The Federal Ministry of Education and some state governments have proposed low-tech solutions for learning. Among them are TV and radio educational programmes for students.
The programmes only provided generic content, with the learning schedule is published on the government’s website and social media handles.
Image: The Conversation.com
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