What Lesson has Covid-19 Taught Nigerians Concerning Quality Education?
What Lesson has Covid-19 Taught Nigerians Concerning Quality Education?
By Paul Nwosu
There are many valuable lessons that the covid-19 has taught the whole world, and Nigeria particularly, has to learn about the importance of having quality education system and making it both available and accessible to every Nigerian child. We are lucky that the pandemic hasn't been as devastating as it has been to countries in colder climates. Nonetheless, our decayed education system has been exposed and we must learn to focus our energy toward this sector and revamp it.
A resounding lesson Nigeria must learn from the covid-19 experience is that having high quality school systems is vital.
The dreadful corona virus occurs at a time when high-quality education is gaining an increasing ground worldwide. Thus, people living in areas where high quality education predominates are tackling the pandemic more holistically than those living in areas where poor quality education predominates. Not that the people living in high quality education dominant areas did not experience some unexpected high mortality rate like it happened in the US, France, UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, China, but they put up immediate and sound teams of experts in key areas to deal with the situation.
The economic team of those countries developed frameworks to lessen the impact of the pandemic before and during the lockdown which some countries are still on. Their education management team drew up framework to incorporate digital learning for students during the lockdown of schools. For example, in US, families have access to the internet and students just continue their education via the internet. The medical research team of nations with high quality education has been on top of their game working assiduously to understand the virus, decode its DNA structure, find out possible ways to fight it with vaccines. Their security team work to ensure that the citizens are well protected. Their political leaders focus their attention to ensure that guidelines and policies that benefit their citizens are provided. For example, in UK, Canada, Spain, among others, leaders ensured that financial palliatives were given to citizens to feed with during the lockdown.
This kind of situation is not well pronounced in nations with low-quality education system. These nations are tackling the pandemic problem more like us. Most schoolchildren do not have the means to continue their education digitally. Internet access to families is very low, and most families cannot afford modern technology gadgets that support online learning. The economic team of these nations is faced with the daunting task of offsetting the financial burdens the pandemic brings, not to talk of devising a way of ensuring that their economy avoids serious depression during and after lockdown. Luckily, international communities always provide financial assistance to these countries. Their medical team is often overwhelmed as their health facilities cannot contain a serious medical problem of the Covid-19 magnitude. Nonchalant disposition of the political leaders is obvious as the masses leak their wounds of economic and material hardship and lost of lives. Some political leaders do not seem to adhere to even the social distancing guideline and therefore, sending confusing message to the public.
Had our education system been of high quality, like the communities with high-quality education system, we would have contributed immensely to the ongoing fight against the pandemic through the outpouring of our intellectual resources, financial and material assistance to other countries. The situation would not be as it is now that we are considered as underprivileged nation that receives aids and financial assistance from developed countries. We would have been providing such assistance to poor countries and gain the moral acknowledgment that comes from giving along with other amazing opportunities that usually come from assisting other countries.
We are not a developed nation yet for our major hindrance is our poor quality education system. The pandemic ought to teach us a powerful lesson, and that lesson is that our education system should be made high quality and strong. We must not let the upcoming generation to face this same ugly situation we face.
Hands-on experience mode of education method gives knowledge and skills to face global problems. Schools in developed countries focus on providing focused hands-on experience to their students. This teaching and learning method helps students to learn and master problem-solving. Graduates from this schooling method comes off becoming solution getters to perplexing problems. Like the covid-19 situation we are in presently, developed countries have been working assiduously to conquer the pandemic and return things to normal.
Having a similar education model in Nigeria which empowers every Nigerian student to apply learned ideas, knowledge, and skills would result in similar outcome as the developed countries. Our schools must focus in teaching relatable concepts and ideals. Students must practice what they learn. Teaching must be in practical ways with tools, devices, gadgets, laboratories, workshops, for students to practice on.
Students' talents must be developed, and the system has to provide enabling environment for students to gain employment when they graduate. This means that schools have to provide the right situations that students can apply their skills as they leave schools.
If Quality Education Had Been in Existence in Nigeria, Schools Would Run Despite the Lockdown.
If we have been running high-skills imbibing school system, issues on quality education would not exist. All schools would have facilities to run both online and offline academics. Students would all have all the tools and devices essential for their academic pursuit. In a lockdown situation, schools would simply run online and students would key in and continue their learning with little or no interruption.
But now, our schools are not running. Students are at home doing little or no academic work. Children are exposed to various negative learning at home as much of their time are spent watching TV, playing video games, selling wares, playing on the street from sunrise to sunset. Their brains are affected as some would find it hard to pick up academic learning when schools eventually resume.
Teachers and private school owners are also seriously affected. Many teachers are currently unemployed. Schools are not open as a result of the pandemic lockdown for the spread of corona virus could escalate among students. So, for the past five months’ teachers have been at home. For those teachers whose skills are not continuously honed, they could lose their proficiency. When schools eventually open, the already poor quality teachers would become even more less quality.
Private schools’ teachers are even more affected as some no longer earn income due to schools being on lockdown. Imagine living for the past five months, no reasonable income you got as a private school teacher, you don't know if the school you teach would survive the lockdown. Even if the lockdown is lifted and you find out that your job is intact, would you give it your all? Would you not be concerned about the security of your job?
So many teachers are diversifying their income earning means into aspects different from teaching. For example, some teachers have started selling foods and drinks on the bus stops, some are hustling wares. When the schools resume, like the Lagos state schools that would resume in September, what would such teachers bring into the classroom?
Will Another Catastrophe Bite Us Before We Learn?
The decadence education system we have is obvious. It is also clear that with a bad school structure, we can hardly deal with our problems. The corona virus pandemic has revealed the hard fact that our education system need immediate reformation.
We must not wait for another terrible catastrophe to strike on us before we take necessary steps to reform our schools. If a vicious alien attacks the earth, for instance, would we be able to defend and strike back to survive? The nations with high-quality education can protect themselves and save their people, but communities with poor-quality education would hardly survive.
Covid-19 pandemic has taught us a great lesson on the need for reformation of our education system. We would have acted better than we are doing had we have high-quality school system. We must not wait for another terrible occurrence to happen before we take steps to rectify the poor-quality education problem.
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