Like a child suffering from dizziness after being flung round and round by a mischievous adult, the world will gradually recover from the unpleasant effects of COVID-19. Only that when the dust finally settles, different facets of life and society may have changed phases and there will be a most urgent need to quickly come to terms with those socio-economic changes and responsively adapt to them.
The facet under scrutiny here is education. And what a whole new phase might have been forced open by the effects of the pandemic. For the first time in our clime, remote learning is seriously being considered as a full option for education, with all its intricacies. But that development has only exposed how far we lag behind in both systems and infrastructure to make such happen for the majority, as the gaps needed to be closed are wide enough to swallow up any wishy-washy arrangement any level of government may want to put up this period. If there is a time to get things right, developing a new workable master plan for education customised for our condition and environment, and beginning to implement it from phase to phase, it is now.
The reality however is that these changes we are being forced to make right now have been begging for attention since the turn of the century. The need to review the curriculum, to conceptualise learning, to embrace technology, to build effective library and management systems for schools, to get public schools back up again, to have an effective database for education, and an effective mass mobilisation that will build a new learning culture, has become paramount since at least two decades ago. What has been happening then? Successive governments either only paid lip service to meeting these needs, or became overwhelmed by their enormity that they couldn’t summon the will to steer the ship of the sector in the right direction. And education in the country seemed to have been all the while stranded at sea. Then, the pandemic happened, and there is a reset.
The delay may well be over as some of those needed changes have to happen now because there is no going forward without tackling them. Give it to the current administrators in the education boards and ministries of different states, they have risen to the challenge and in just three months of the pandemic, there have been more proffered solutions being worked on than what we had in whole four years of some past administrations. COVID-19 might have been an unpleasant development, but it is jolting leaders in education into action, some almost from a state of redundancy. At least, it seems we have started sailing again on the long-delayed journey that will make us reduce to the minimum the number of out-of-school children in the country, and increase the quality of education in all classrooms across the country, physical or virtual. In a way, the current set of governors, education commissioners, their permanent secretaries and other top executives may be envied because the pandemic has ironically thrown up an opportunity for them to leave their footprints on the sands of time, if they can, through innovation and resilience, transform the education system as their positive response to the effects of the pandemic. But they also must not be envied, not just because of the staggering hurdles in the way of such a most desired achievement, but because of the grave consequences if they fail to deliver at this time. Posterity will not judge them right at all if, God forbid, the already cracked calabash of the Nigerian education system eventually break on their head.
Consequently, the present administrations in the different states may need to really research into what currently works to meet the most pressing needs in our education as schools resume, hopefully, soon. They also may need to look back to see what had worked and how such could be adapted. Such reflection brings to mind the Unity Party of Nigeria’s feat in the South-West during the Second Republic, between 1979 and 1983. Tremendous strides in education were made in the UPN-controlled states of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo and Bendel through a media-orchestrated free education programme and a huge investment in school infrastructure, such as never been known or achieved perhaps in any part of the country at any other time in history. Several public primary and secondary schools were built, giving most children in the region the opportunity to be educated, a development that would stand the South-West out in academic gains for decades to come.
What did the UPN governors of those five states do to stand out? These are lessons today’s leaders in the education sector should take note at this critical time. Firstly, they built public schools to cater for more children to be educated. What should today’s government do regarding that? Roughly the same, of course, with prudence, because of limited state resources. While we may first need to pinch ourselves on why resources have become so scarce that we cannot invest so much in education, there is a need for innovation to maximise already existing school facilities. How? Run two school schedules, morning and then afternoon, instead of one, and use public school facilities as Community Learning Centre venues on weekends. The pandemic has given us a kick regarding having two shifts anyway, as public schools for now need to be less crowded because of physical distancing measures. But in the long run, there is a need to achieve better teacher-to-student ratio, and to accommodate some out-of-school children in society, which the weekend-run Community Learning Centres will also greatly help with apart from accommodating co-curricular activities, exam preparation classes, and any other class or subject-specific activities of the regular school’s weekday-run that may need to be so programmed.
Bottomline, if we cannot build as many school facilities as the UPN government did, we should maximise the ones we have.
Secondly, the UPN government provided free education with free education materials, and that beyond what any state in the country is doing presently. Having travelled around the country in the last few years conducting seminars for both teachers and students in both private and public schools, I have seen different shades of today’s free education programme, from the slightly okay to the simply inadequate. In my article published on this page months back titled, Free education that is not free, I stressed the need for government, the owners of public schools, to match affordability with quality in the quest of providing free education. Education should not be termed free, for instance, if students don’t have adequate necessary materials free of charge. Now that the pandemic has caused a strong stirring for virtual learning, texts must be packaged in different electronic modes. Plus, every school should have a functioning library for support provision of diverse texts.
Also, because many schools were started during that UPN era in the South-West, many teachers were employed and teaching was able to hold its own among other professions. In my 2016 special report on education in Nigeria titled, Rethinking education, one main thrust is the need to rebrand the teaching profession, an ideal the pandemic has also come to put pressure on its realisation. If some other sectors and professions get badly shaken by the aftermath of this pandemic, teaching and education must not be so detrimentally affected, and the education ministry must even be ready to absorb other qualified professionals who may now take up teaching as the demand for teachers increase in both private and public schools. Teaching must be made to remain relevant and in vogue. Thus, if there is a way to strengthen the private school system, and there should be, today’s government must do so to uphold teaching and teachers.
For what is being taught, the thrust for virtual learning necessitated by the effects of the pandemic should now bring about the comprehensive review of the curriculum aligning it with the present and future and not with the past. The remote learning on radio and TV that started in the wake of the pandemic must not only be continued, it must also be synchronized with the weekly scheme of work so that both teachers and students can maximise its advantage. Alongside the remote teachings, there must be an effective mass mobilisation on the promotion of education with slogans, jingles and messages, something that will be noise enough to be heard and music enough to be listened to.
Omisore is an education consultant and the author of Smart and Brilliant Writing book for students. He wrote in from Lagos via mdomisore@yahoo.com
END
Be the first to comment