Effect of Covid-19 on learning in Nigeria
Category: Education
By: Uzoamaka Okpalaugo,
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected countries, destructively affecting the world-wide economy. Due to actions to contain the pandemic, about 1.2 billion pupils were out of school according to UNESCO and 73.8% of the world’s school population was affected by school closures as The Education Partnership (TEP) opined. In Nigeria, 35.9 million primary and secondary school learners were out of school. For primary schools, this number totalled approximately 25.6 million pupils, of which about 87 percent (23.5 million) were enrolled in public schools, and the remaining 13% were enrolled in private schools. For secondary school students, 10.3 million were out of school; approximately 81 percent (8.4 million) of them were public school students, while the 19% totalled enrolled in private schools. Even though the lockdown affected access to basic education, the quality and equality, it has pushed the reforming of education and the process of teaching and learning globally.
Education before COVID-19
The Nigerian education system is one which has been under constant criticism for its inefficiency and ineptitude for quality learning and solutions to local problems. This is because the system is in assorted crises of infrastructural decay and neglect, waste of resources and decadent conditions of service. There is plethora of literature emphasising this poor and inadequate state of physical facilities in the government primary and secondary schools. In Nigeria, the education system comprises of both public schools and private schools. The public schools are owned and managed by the government, while the private schools are owned by individuals or non-governmental organisations like the religious groups and humanitarian groups. The government provide physical facilities and human resources for the public schools while the private schools are being taken care of by the owners.
School facilities when provided, aid teaching and learning and subsequently improve the academic achievement of students, which eventually impacts positively on the individual’s daily living and on the society at large. The deplorable state of most Nigerian schools has made teaching and learning difficult and unequal. Eventually, when teaching and learning take place with the available resources, quality learning is not guaranteed. In addition, it is mostly private schools that have the necessary physical facilities and teaching aids for quality teaching and learning, and they only comprise of 25% average of the population of students receiving basic education. The academic fate of the 75% of students in public schools depends on the child’s determination to learn and the family’s support or on charity.
Learning during COVID-19
When the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Nigeria and the eventual lockdown of the country in the last days of March, there was a nationwide panic. The panic hinged on how the 40% of the population who are poor will survive during the lockdown. This population is comprised of people who feed from a daily income and they also make up of families with children who are either out of school or registered in a poorly equipped primary and secondary school. This population barely feed three times in a day, some of them depend on the School Feeding Programme for food. The closure of schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown led to more than 40 million children remaining at home amidst the danger of going hungry and loosing access to basic teaching and learning and nutrition at the same time. The education system is already laden with low participation and learning achievements. The lockdown closure increased the challenges already in existence for children’s education especially children from low-income families, and potentially set back recent gains in bringing children back to school. Children from very poor homes, born to illiterate parents who either do not understand the value of education or cannot afford to send their children to school.
The Federal Ministry of Education mitigated the immediate impact of the lockdown on education by using online and offline platforms like; television programmes, eLearning, radio broadcasts and take-home materials to keep children learning. But kids in rural and underserved communities in Nigeria, were left behind as they were not equipped to adapt or transition to the new methods of learning. Nevertheless, some states in the federation contextualized school closure; citing the Anambra State Ministry of Education and some states in Nigeria, who used radio and TV to schedule lessons for students in public schools. However, for families that depend on a daily income and or earn below $1 per day or below to nothing, were faced with severe financial difficulties due to the lockdown in the country at the time. The acquisition of radios or TV set was a deal that they could not afford. A suggestion to this problem was the acquisition of portable solar radio to bridge the digital gap which was also not guaranteed. Children on the middle and higher end of the socio-economic spectrum experienced less disruption to their learning because their private schools are well-equipped with ICT infrastructure and they could afford remote learning resources at home.
The pandemic exposed significant inequalities in the education sector. Private and non-governmental sectors diligently worked to salvage the situation. Notwithstanding, one main challenge that may originate from this inequality is that the children who could not keep up with their peers because of unavailability and inaccessibility to digital tools may never catch up and will continue to feel the effect of this gap long after the pandemic is over. This may result in a severely diminishing pool of young people who have not gained the essential skills to stay ahead in the future. With Nigeria already behind in training its young people for the workplace of the future, the effects of the pandemic further aggravated this issue.
Safe re-opening of schools and learning after COVID-19 inspired lockdown
The federal government eased the lockdown policy in September, after a six-month compulsory stay at home for all Nigerian citizens and advised schools to re-open for physical teaching and learning. They emphasized that schools could resume only when they have met the preventive measures for school safety during the pandemic. This means that schools, both public and private schools must construct basic sanitation facilities in other to protect their students from corona virus, train their teachers on adapting to the new normal which is observing social distancing and wearing of face mask in and around the school compound. All schools obliged and schools re-opened.
Upon school resumption, it was observed that most students were adversely affected from long stay at home. The students who grew and benefitted from eLearning were children from higher economic spectrum. That was because, such children are enrolled in schools with already existing eLearning platforms and channels like e-Library, they only switched to learning at home. They transited to the next level smoothly, except those in exam class, who must write the national exam with the rest of the federation. Then the students from middle class, who are also enrolled in private schools but do not have an existing eLearning channels but made use of social media and other online platforms to teach online. Some of this category of students retained between 40% to 70% of what was taught using video recordings, WhatsApp messaging and telegram app. The schools revised what was taught and they transited to the next level. However, the students in public schools, who could only afford watching TV programmes and radio broadcasts were not assessed in any form during the lockdown to ascertain what they learnt or did not learn. This resulted to schools going back to where they stopped when the lockdown started while some state governors promoted all students to the next level. The worst hit children are those who dropped out because their parents lost their meagre source of income due to the long lockdown. Some of these children may not ever return to back to school except “luck shines on them”.
Way forward
Subsequently, it was observed that there were no appropriate strategies in place to control and manage the influence of COVID-19 pandemic on the educational system, it is extremely recommended for the government and concerned ministry should ensure there are innovative strategies put in place in case of another similar experience.
Having also observed that even the E-Learning chosen as the alternatives to be used in reaching out to the learners in the period of lockdown did not work successfully, it is advisable for the ministry of education to employ experts in the area of ICT to further introduce programs that will enhance the productivity of the education sector in order to compete with the outside world even in the period of a global pandemic lockdown.
And also, the government should invest in the education system to meet the needs of 21st century children. Endeavour to make inclusive plans that will not leave any child behind.
Education data facts on Nigeria
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Effect of Covid-19 on learning in Nigeria
| Post date: Mon, Sep 27, 2021 |
| Category: Education |
| By: Uzoamaka Okpalaugo, |
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected countries, destructively affecting the world-wide economy. Due to actions to contain the pandemic, about 1.2 billion pupils were out of school according to UNESCO and 73.8% of the world’s school population was affected by school closures as The Education Partnership (TEP) opined. In Nigeria, 35.9 million primary and secondary school learners were out of school. For primary schools, this number totalled approximately 25.6 million pupils, of which about 87 percent (23.5 million) were enrolled in public schools, and the remaining 13% were enrolled in private schools. For secondary school students, 10.3 million were out of school; approximately 81 percent (8.4 million) of them were public school students, while the 19% totalled enrolled in private schools. Even though the lockdown affected access to basic education, the quality and equality, it has pushed the reforming of education and the process of teaching and learning globally.
Education before COVID-19
The Nigerian education system is one which has been under constant criticism for its inefficiency and ineptitude for quality learning and solutions to local problems. This is because the system is in assorted crises of infrastructural decay and neglect, waste of resources and decadent conditions of service. There is plethora of literature emphasising this poor and inadequate state of physical facilities in the government primary and secondary schools. In Nigeria, the education system comprises of both public schools and private schools. The public schools are owned and managed by the government, while the private schools are owned by individuals or non-governmental organisations like the religious groups and humanitarian groups. The government provide physical facilities and human resources for the public schools while the private schools are being taken care of by the owners.
School facilities when provided, aid teaching and learning and subsequently improve the academic achievement of students, which eventually impacts positively on the individual’s daily living and on the society at large. The deplorable state of most Nigerian schools has made teaching and learning difficult and unequal. Eventually, when teaching and learning take place with the available resources, quality learning is not guaranteed. In addition, it is mostly private schools that have the necessary physical facilities and teaching aids for quality teaching and learning, and they only comprise of 25% average of the population of students receiving basic education. The academic fate of the 75% of students in public schools depends on the child’s determination to learn and the family’s support or on charity.
Learning during COVID-19
When the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Nigeria and the eventual lockdown of the country in the last days of March, there was a nationwide panic. The panic hinged on how the 40% of the population who are poor will survive during the lockdown. This population is comprised of people who feed from a daily income and they also make up of families with children who are either out of school or registered in a poorly equipped primary and secondary school. This population barely feed three times in a day, some of them depend on the School Feeding Programme for food. The closure of schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown led to more than 40 million children remaining at home amidst the danger of going hungry and loosing access to basic teaching and learning and nutrition at the same time. The education system is already laden with low participation and learning achievements. The lockdown closure increased the challenges already in existence for children’s education especially children from low-income families, and potentially set back recent gains in bringing children back to school. Children from very poor homes, born to illiterate parents who either do not understand the value of education or cannot afford to send their children to school.
The Federal Ministry of Education mitigated the immediate impact of the lockdown on education by using online and offline platforms like; television programmes, eLearning, radio broadcasts and take-home materials to keep children learning. But kids in rural and underserved communities in Nigeria, were left behind as they were not equipped to adapt or transition to the new methods of learning. Nevertheless, some states in the federation contextualized school closure; citing the Anambra State Ministry of Education and some states in Nigeria, who used radio and TV to schedule lessons for students in public schools. However, for families that depend on a daily income and or earn below $1 per day or below to nothing, were faced with severe financial difficulties due to the lockdown in the country at the time. The acquisition of radios or TV set was a deal that they could not afford. A suggestion to this problem was the acquisition of portable solar radio to bridge the digital gap which was also not guaranteed. Children on the middle and higher end of the socio-economic spectrum experienced less disruption to their learning because their private schools are well-equipped with ICT infrastructure and they could afford remote learning resources at home.
The pandemic exposed significant inequalities in the education sector. Private and non-governmental sectors diligently worked to salvage the situation. Notwithstanding, one main challenge that may originate from this inequality is that the children who could not keep up with their peers because of unavailability and inaccessibility to digital tools may never catch up and will continue to feel the effect of this gap long after the pandemic is over. This may result in a severely diminishing pool of young people who have not gained the essential skills to stay ahead in the future. With Nigeria already behind in training its young people for the workplace of the future, the effects of the pandemic further aggravated this issue.
Safe re-opening of schools and learning after COVID-19 inspired lockdown
The federal government eased the lockdown policy in September, after a six-month compulsory stay at home for all Nigerian citizens and advised schools to re-open for physical teaching and learning. They emphasized that schools could resume only when they have met the preventive measures for school safety during the pandemic. This means that schools, both public and private schools must construct basic sanitation facilities in other to protect their students from corona virus, train their teachers on adapting to the new normal which is observing social distancing and wearing of face mask in and around the school compound. All schools obliged and schools re-opened.
Upon school resumption, it was observed that most students were adversely affected from long stay at home. The students who grew and benefitted from eLearning were children from higher economic spectrum. That was because, such children are enrolled in schools with already existing eLearning platforms and channels like e-Library, they only switched to learning at home. They transited to the next level smoothly, except those in exam class, who must write the national exam with the rest of the federation. Then the students from middle class, who are also enrolled in private schools but do not have an existing eLearning channels but made use of social media and other online platforms to teach online. Some of this category of students retained between 40% to 70% of what was taught using video recordings, WhatsApp messaging and telegram app. The schools revised what was taught and they transited to the next level. However, the students in public schools, who could only afford watching TV programmes and radio broadcasts were not assessed in any form during the lockdown to ascertain what they learnt or did not learn. This resulted to schools going back to where they stopped when the lockdown started while some state governors promoted all students to the next level. The worst hit children are those who dropped out because their parents lost their meagre source of income due to the long lockdown. Some of these children may not ever return to back to school except “luck shines on them”.
Way forward
Subsequently, it was observed that there were no appropriate strategies in place to control and manage the influence of COVID-19 pandemic on the educational system, it is extremely recommended for the government and concerned ministry should ensure there are innovative strategies put in place in case of another similar experience.
Having also observed that even the E-Learning chosen as the alternatives to be used in reaching out to the learners in the period of lockdown did not work successfully, it is advisable for the ministry of education to employ experts in the area of ICT to further introduce programs that will enhance the productivity of the education sector in order to compete with the outside world even in the period of a global pandemic lockdown.
And also, the government should invest in the education system to meet the needs of 21st century children. Endeavour to make inclusive plans that will not leave any child behind.
Education data facts on Nigeria
More Blogs
Kenya’s National Budget: A Matatu Ride Reflecting Fiscal Volatility and Structural Inefficiencies
Introduction The matatu metaphor can be used to analytically frame Kenya’s budget as a system that is subject to binding constraints, evolving expectations, and continuous adjustment to shocks. Like the matatu sector, fiscal policy reflects a balancing act between efficiency and quick action seeking to respond to public service delivery while constrained by competing sector […]
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Introduction Imagine paying the same fare to travel at 6 a.m. as you would at 6 p.m., even though the matatu is half-empty in the morning and packed in the evening. At 6 a.m., there may be more seats available than passengers willing to pay for them. By 6 p.m., the situation is reversed. Hundreds […]
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Absurd hypotheticals are useful precisely because they stress-test a system until its constraints become visible. This note asks what would break first if SpaceX, now a public company following its record-breaking Nasdaq debut in June 2026, with a post-IPO market value of approximately US$ 2.5 trillion, sought a secondary cross-listing on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. […]
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Kenya’s proposed post-2030 Vision commits the country to high-income status “within a generation.” One positive issue that should be emulated is that the document seeks to solve the most important policy decision and the foundational problem in economics, which is to expand output and labour. Skeptics ask the most important question, why would this plan […]
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According to the Annual Debt Report 2024/25, as shown in Chart 1 below, Kenya today is such that for every one hundred shillings the Kenyan government raises in tax revenue, approximately ksh71 goes directly into servicing existing debt before a single hospital is staffed, a classroom is built, or a kilometre of road is constructed. […]