Conference Paper on Survival of Education in a Covid-19 Prone Society
Introduction
The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has spread worldwide, affecting almost all countries and territories. The outbreak was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The countries around the world cautioned the public to take responsive care. The public care strategies have included handwashing, wearing face masks, physical distancing, and avoiding mass gathering and assemblies. Lockdown and staying home strategies have been put in place as the needed action to flatten the curve and control the transmission of the disease (Sintema, 2020).
In an attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19, in the large majority of countries around the world educational institutions have decided to temporarily suspend in-person instruction and move to a remote learning model of delivery. According to UNESCO, at the end of April 2020, educational institutions shut down in 186 countries, affecting approximately 74% of total enrolled learners on the planet. In many countries, schools have been closed since the beginning of March 2020, while in others (e.g. most of China and South Korea) in-person classes had been already cancelled since January 2020. Several countries (e.g. Malta, Portugal, Ireland) have announced that (parts of) the formal education system will not re-open this academic year, whereas in others (e.g. Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, Poland) (parts of) the formal education system have progressively re-opened in April/May to facilitate assessment and certification, depending on medical advice for de-confinement.
Challenges in Teaching and Learning
With the availability of a sea of platforms and online educational tools, the users both educators and learners face frequent hiccups while using it or referring tothese tools. Some of the challenges identified and highlighted by many researchers are summarized as follows: Broadly identified challenges with e-learning are accessibility, affordability, flexibility, learning pedagogy, life-long learning and educational policy (Murgatrotd, 2020). Many countries have substantial issues with a reliable Internet connection and access to digital devices. While, in many developing countries, the economically backward children are unable to afford online learning devices, the online education poses a risk of exposure to increased screen time for the learner. Therefore, it has become essential for students to engage in offline activities and self-exploratory learning.
Opportunities for Teaching and Learning
Although there have been overwhelming challenges for educators, schools, institutes and the government regarding online education from a different angle, there are several opportunities created by the COVID-19 pandemic for the unprepared and the distant plans of implementing e- learning system. It has forged a strong connection between teachers and parents than ever before. The homeschooling requires parents to support the students’ learning academically and economically.
A change in the way students interact
It is well known that the school environment influences achievement through peer effects. Being in a classroom and hence having the opportunity to interact with classmates may produce important positive externalities. Peer effects may operate through many different channels. Students may teach each other and get improvement together. Classmates’ high achievements may motivate the student (through competition or social influence) to work harder. The student can also develop an interest in reading or in mathematics thanks to his/her peers (Sacerdote 2011). Additionally, classroom activities provide a central role in helping students acquire social skills that have important implications for their future personal and professional growth (Goodman et al. 2015).
Education System Post-COVID-19
The researchers, curriculum designers, education officers, and educational institutions work together to transform the education system during the closures. Educational institutions should design curriculums, prepare learning strategies and techniques for post-COVID-19, and transform the education system itself. During closures curriculum design, collaborations, skill development, and educational institutions should focus on advancing the education system. After COVID-19, the school’s design strategies and methods to recover lost learning, ensure children return to school when schools reopen, preparing students, parents, and teachers, and to scale distance learning accessibility (Tiruneh, 2020). School teachers in collaboration with education officers need to give awareness for parents and students to make sure that children are safe at home during school closures and trying to learn and read books as much as possible (Crawford et al., 2020). There is inequality among urban and rural students; students from low-income or high-income and literate or illiterate parents. So that the education system should design and implement some evidence-based actions that aim to facilitate the recovery of the lost portion when schools are reopened. Because of the lack of required support during the school closures, it could take a very long time for children from illiterate and low-income parents to recover their missed portion when they return to school. Some students from low-income parents may decide to work as daily laborers to support their families financially and may never return to school when schools reopen. Parents from rural areas may be unwilling to send their children back to school because they may prefer their children to continue to support them in cattle herding and farming. The schools should trace those students who do not return to school and also even if the countries recover from COVID-19, parents may fear to send their children back to school so that design strategies to encourage parents to send their children back to school (Tiruneh, 2020). The education system needs strategies on how to prepare teachers and students to respond effectively and efficiently during and after COVID-19. Teachers may not teach all the time in a face-to-face classroom; students may not learn in the face-to-face class all the time. When the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the education system needs to prepare everyone to be flexible and adapt quickly to various learning platforms during a time of crisis. The global community may need to support the educational systems in developing countries in their efforts to prepare schools, teachers, students, and parents for the future (Zhu & Liu, 2020)
Conclusion
The outbreak of corona virus has shaken the educational sector of Nigeria off its strength. In fact, looking at the trend of the pandemic, it could be something we are going to live with for a long period of time. There is no doubt that there is going to be a serious set-back in the development of Nigeria education system if the coronavirus pandemic lockdown is not properly managed by the government and concern personnel. Schools calendar have been disrupted, there is reduction in the economic development of the country which has affected the education finance as well. Since the family income depends on the economic growth of any country, most of the families in Nigeria are experiencing economic hardship as a result of the pandemic lockdown; some of the vulnerable families having their children under the federal government free feeding scheme are being faced with the challenge of going in search of food for their children while they are with them at home. Unfortunately the illiteracy level of some parents in Nigeria is not helping the matter because not every parents or guidance could handle the black and white teaching of their children. This on a long run will cause children in these category to experience a great set-back in their academic endeavors, in fact many of them may from there drop out of school and take some other things. The pandemic lockdown has led to the shortage of funds for the educational system, parents as well are been faced with the reality of having to pay extra cost on their children academics whenever they resume to school. This is certainly a trying time forthe economy, a hit on the sustainable development of the country and it is not going to be an easy experience for some households who could barely afford daily balanced diet who have been sacrificing a lot for their children to get the best education for them to become a useful and acceptable member of the society. It won’t be surprising if a larger percentage of students dropped out of schools after the pandemic lock down in Nigeria as a result of inability to of parents to bear the cost of financing their children’s education
Recommendation
Since it was observed that there were no proper plans in place to curb and manage the influence of coronavirus on the educational system, it is highly recommended for the government and concerned educational personnel should ensure there are futuristic plans to in case of another similar experience. This is COVID-19, nobody knows what other occurrences will happen in future and will lead to interruption of the activities of the educational system of Nigeria, therefore plans are to be made in ensuring the future of the education system is secured and not been disrupted with emergence of disease. Having observed that even the E-Learning chosen as the alternatives to be used in reaching out to the learners in the period of lockdown has not successfully work because of non unemployment of expert to manage the ICT section of the Nigeria Education system, huge tariff charges from various network providers in Nigeria. Therefore it is advisable for the Nigeria 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 global pandemic lockdown. These experts should design the teaching learning activities through social media platforms such as Google Classroom which is a free web service that is developed by Google for schools that aims to simplify creating, distributing and grading assignments in a paperless way with the purpose of streamlining the process of sharing files between lecturers and students. WhatsApp which is freeware, cross-platform, messaging and voice over IP service, it is owned by Facebook, Inc. It allows users to send text messages and voice messages, make voice and video calls and share images, documents, user location and other media. Zoom which is a video communication that provides video telephone and online chat services through a cloud-based peer-to-peer software platform that is used for distance education and social relations. Blog is an online journal or informational website use in displaying information in a reversed chronological order with the latest post appearing first. It is a platform where a writer shares his/her view on any concepts. All these will still maintain the social distancing rules, helps the teacher to teach, reach out to learners through voice, written words or even video conversations. Learners won’t have to miss a lot as a result of not physically present in class. Also if after a period of time, the move to reopen schools for learners in terminal classes works perfectly, it can also be extended to other levels of education enforcing all related health rules and regulations are been followed to details in order to ensure much damage is not done to the development of the Nigerian educational sector
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