COVID-19: The Impact of the Extended Lockdown on Students in Nigeria By Akunna Igbokwe
At the end of February 2020, as panic bells began to sound on the growing spread of the COVID-19 virus, the World Bank established a multi-sectoral global task force to support country’s response and coping measures. At that time, only China and a handful of schools in other affected countries were enforcing social distancing through school closures. A little over two weeks later, 120 countries have closed schools impacting almost a billion students across the globe that have seen their schools close for varying lengths of time.
As we have seen from previous health emergencies, most recently the Ebola outbreaks, the impact on education is likely to be most devastating in countries with already low learning outcomes, high dropout rates, and low resilience to shocks.
While school closures seem to present a logical solution to enforcing social distancing within communities, prolonged closures tend to have a disproportionately negative impact on the most vulnerable students. They have fewer opportunities for learning at home, and their time out of school may present economic burdens for parents who may face challenges finding prolonged childcare, or even adequate food in the absence of school meals.
There’s no denying the severity of the coronavirus and how the world has changed as a result. Already many states in Nigeria are shutting down for another two weeks as the number of confirmed cases is steadily increasing and although this is for the best there are several shortcomings.
Many countries outside Nigeria are now shutting down schools for the rest of the academic year; this is already a reality as thirty-nine states in the U.S have decided to close schools as of Tuesday impacting at least 41.6 million students in America. Despite this, students are staying occupied as these schools are continuing to engage them through online classes.
The extension of the lockdown is expected to add to the challenges of education globally most especially in Africa. Nigeria has the highest out of school children in the world and the survey shows that about 9.1million children are out of school in Nigeria.
With the lockdown extension, the learning process will get a lot worse for students. Compared to other countries that are exploring options for students to continue learning in their homes, Nigerian schools will find it difficult to adopt such options domestically as there are several limiting factors in Nigeria. Many students are not properly equipped especially those in the public schools who do not own mobile phones, laptops and other digital equipment necessary for learning at home.
Also, the issue of internet connection for the teachers and the students, most homes in Nigeria depend on mobile data providers whose receptions are mostly unreliable, and how many can afford to buy data every time they want to teach or learn. Unstable electricity will further hinder the learning process as one needs electricity to power the devices needed for this cause.
What options are there to ease the learning process during this lockdown period?
For the schools that have the capacity for e-learning, classes should be held online and they should occupy the students by giving them weekly deliverables which should be submitted and a reward point system should be initiated to ensure compliance.
And for parents who cannot subscribe to the e-Learning option and would rather home school their wards, schools should provide a standard syllabus to follow. And for the underprivileged who do not have access to the above options, the government should establish an academic scheme that utilizes the Radio/TV medium.
Although these options might prove effective, they are no substitutions for actual conventional learning methods that have become inaccessible owing to the current pandemic. It is however imperative to find a way to make things work amidst it all.
Possible Solutions Government Can Explore
The outbreak of the virus and lockdowns at the national level could be used as a best test for the education technology interventions for distance learning. Unfortunately, few systems arrived at this point fully prepared. China is one country where education continued regardless of school closures, taking place through internet and distance learning.
Other countries or school systems are less prepared. Access to technology in most households may vary, and access to high bandwidth internet or to smart-phones is related to income even in mid-income countries. Therefore, programs that can quickly target those in most need are crucial.
Education interventions during a crisis can support prevention and recovery of public health while mitigating the impact on students and learning.
Where health facilities may be scarce, schools can be turned into makeshift holding centres during a crisis. This all needs to be factored into planning, particularly during the coping and recovery phases. It’s also worth noting that education has the potential to contribute to the protection of children and youth; it helps them cope or maintain some normalcy during a crisis, and recover more quickly, hopefully with some useful new skills (i.e. acquiring distance learning skills and deeper digital mastery where applicable).
Furthermore, in some low-capacity environments, notably across swaths of Sub-Saharan Africa, schools are often the only permanent government structure in rural villages and can serve as makeshift crisis response centres. Teachers, often among the most educated in these hard-to-reach areas, can be trained to serve as contact tracers and communication campaign advocates.
Has Nigeria Learnt Any Lessons From Previous Pandemics?
Is Nigeria learning from COVID-19? Compared to what we have seen in previous pandemics, It is obvious that preparedness is crucial. While different scenarios exist, several of them assume that the COVID-19 spread will happen in waves, which means the process of addressing it should be cyclical.
Considering the documented slow rate of spread in Nigeria, countries not yet impacted should begin “preparing,” starting with a response plan. This would facilitate “coping” once the crisis hits and minimizing the negative impacts. The plan can include introducing protocols for screenings in schools, rolling out hygiene practice campaigns, imposing school closures, offering distance learning, using closed schools for emergency purposes, etc.
As the emergency phase dissipates, communities could move into a “recovery” mode, with governments implementing policies and measures to regain lost time. The approaches may include adjustments to the academic calendar, prioritizing students in grades preparing for high-stakes examinations like WASSCE, JAMB, NECO and GCE, and continuing with distance learning in parallel to schools.
Countries that have shown greater resilience in repeated crises, such as those in East Asia, are the ones that were able to benefit from lessons learned and to respond quickly to new crises, such as this one. They have been able to use the momentum to re-prepare, investing and reinforcing systems going forward.
It is critical to jointly work building on the experience of previous outbreaks (SARS, Ebola, etc.) in support to Governments in understanding the options available. The World Bank is working with countries across the globe in each of the three stages of preparing, coping and recovery. Educational administrators and policy-makers can use this crisis as an opportunity to introduce new learning modes that can reach everyone, to prepare for emergencies, and to make the system more resilient.
