The spread of the coronavirus through the globe from China initially spared Nigeria, like many other Africa countries, with zero recorded cases as of January 2020. This luck, however, did not last. By 28th of February, Nigeria reported her first case, a Nigerian UK returnee. Almost nine months later, 60,430 confirmed cases, with a total of 51,943 recoveries and 1,115 deaths as at 14 October 2020 (see Knowcovid19.ng for real-time updates), Nigeria has a pressing cause to panic.
Consequently, the Federal Ministry of Education on March 19th, 2020 announced the temporary closure of all schools in Nigeria, effective March 23rd, 2020, in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Armed with the knowledge of the defunct state of Nigeria’s education sector, pertinent questions arose: “Do schools in Nigeria have the technology to cater to the about 46 million students affected? Do households have the facilities to engage their children in remote learning? Do teachers have the skills and facilities to deliver live lessons or record massive open online course (MOOC) styled lessons?”
Children being out-of-school has long been the reality in Nigeria's education sector, with about 13.2 million school-age out of school, the highest in the world. Even though the basic nine- years of education are free and compulsory, many children are not in school due to factors such as poverty, gender gaps, religion and regional factors, among others. The school-closure measure means learners previously in school are no longer going to school, leaving many with no alternative means of learning. The drastic escalation of coronavirus will not only affect learning, it will compound on the pre-existing education inequalities in Nigeria, with vulnerable and disadvantaged children at the receiving end. To curb the widening of the existing education inequalities, there is an onus on the Nigeria government to put in place measures to ensure continuity, inclusion and equity for all learners during this pandemic.
Unlike her western predecessors, the Federal Ministry of Education’s school-closure directive did not come with any clear-cut policy measures on how to mitigate learning disruptions for children and how to address the digital divide. The Coordinated Education response to COVID-19 pandemic on the landing page of the Ministry website is vague and does little to address the learning needs of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. The single well-documented response, to the best of my knowledge, is the Nigeria Education in Emergency Working Group (NWiWwg) Strategy, published on April 7th 2020 with a response objective of mitigating the negative impact of the school closure on learners and teachers in North-East Nigeria. Deductively, it follows that education is not paramount to the Nigerian government at this time.
While the efforts of the Federal and State government in the health sector and in providing financial stimulus packages and emergency palliatives must be commended; ignoring the education sector would be disastrous. As emphasised by UNESCO, temporary school closure comes with high social and economic costs, with severe impact on children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
More than ever, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the huge socio-economic inequalities in the Nigeria education system. Many wealthy families in Nigeria send their children to private schools given the poor resources and facilities in public schools. These children might experience insignificant disruption to their learning, because their private schools are well equipped with ICT infrastructures and they can afford remote learning from their abode. The many that would be left struggling are the learners from vulnerable and disadvantaged communities, who do not have access to computers and other devices outside the school. In many cases, these children live in communities with poor or non-existent internet connectivity and epileptic power supply. Inevitably, this digital divide will exacerbate the learning disparities among these children.
What is the next step?
The temporary school closures mean educators, funders and policymakers are rethinking the way learning is delivered and accessed by learners. In China for instance, governments are providing computers to students from low-income households and offering mobile data packages and telecommunication subsidies for students. In France, efforts are being made to lend devices to learners who do not have access to computers. Similarly, Portugal is partnering with the post office services to deliver working sheets to students who do not have access to the internet at home.
In Nigeria, it is commendable to see State governments (such as Kwara and Lagos) adopt local media channels such as radio programmes to reach out to learners in remote communities. The quality of such educational programmes, however, is not within the scope of this article. Currently, Nigeria allocates about 7% of her budget to education, as opposed to the 15 to 20% recommended by UNESCO. The government could further mitigate the negative impact of Covid-19 on education by investing in the provision of solar-powered educational gadgets, pre-loaded with offline academic resources to learners in disadvantaged and vulnerable communities. The government should also partner with Telecommunication companies to offer free or subsidised mobile data packages for learners. The Nigeria Education in emergency Working Group (NWiWwg) Covid19 Response Strategy should also be scaled-up, to include other regions in the country. Of course, these policy measures would require significant financial investment, but such investment is worthwhile for the progress of the economy in the long-term.
Looking ahead, it is pertinent to ensure #LearningNeverStops during this pandemic.
Taibat Hussain recently completed a Master of Development Economics student at SOAS University of London, under the Commonwealth Shared Scholarship scheme. Her research interests lie in education, women advancement and good leadership. She tweets at @aduragbataibat and can be reached at aduragbataibat@gmail.com
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