Managing Education Disruption: A thought on Nigeria’s COVID 19 Education Response...by Lanre Oguntoye

Managing Education Disruption:

A thought on Nigeria’s COVID 19 Education Response

     Lanre Abolaji Oguntoye,

Teacher and Ed-tech Expert, INSEA Ambassador

      [email protected]

Every good meaning person would agree with UNICEF that all children, no matter where they live or what their circumstances, have the right to quality education. However, the Nigerian child has enjoyed the other side of this golden coin due to less thoughtful planning and other systemic barriers that have hindered the implementation of effective education strategy in our country, just as in a few other countries sharing the dark side of the wisdom moon with Nigeria.

In the pre-COVID-19 Nigeria, according to UNICEF (2020), about 10.5 million children aged 5-14 years are not in school. Only 61 percent of 6-11 year-olds regularly attend primary school and only 35.6 percent of children aged 36-59 months receive early childhood education.

The Global COVID-19 pandemic and our nation’s reactionary response has further widen this gap in the number of in-school and out of school children. Even on the global scale, more than 1.5 billion students and youth across the planet are affected by school and university closures due to the COVID-19 outbreak (UNESCO, 2020). As it is, there will be a redefinition of what is considered as in-school or out-of-school children. This redefinition will extend to the refinement of the term “access to quality education”.

This lock down, therefore presents government, schools, families and education stakeholders the opportunity for deep thinking and critical evaluation of our national readiness to achieve SDG 4 and offer our children the 21st century education they deserve. 

COVID 19- The Philosophical Take

The world was moving at an unprecedentedly fast pace and the friction generated was precipitating an impending implosion. This pandemic is a symptom of a stressed world. I believe it is nature’s attempt to regroup resources, amend cracks and cause humanity to think about what it is to be human and how the string that holds us can be vulcanized.

The fast pace digital, scientific invasion ,biomedical manipulations and military tussle have caused the mother earth injury. Nature is bleeding from the impacts of technological advancement, biological and chemical pollution and the deliberate disruption of nature through physical, chemical or biological engineering. We have invaded nature, unfortunately it has to fight back to heal itself.

This pandemic, therefore, presents an opportunity for us all to reflect and critically plan for the post-COVID-19 World. While the road ahead may seem unprecedented; it is clear that this too shall pass. However, the survival of the education sector (and that of each institution) depends on the type of response designed during this crisis and most effectively, the array of galvanized responses after this lockdown phase.

COVID 19 and The Second Degree Crisis

 The education sector is facing a second-degree crisis or what I called a rippled crisis. Schools are brainstorming on how to engage their students. Some administrators are lost as to what to do now, while others have simply resigned to fate. Parents who have not been involved in guiding their children through the proper use of devices for educational use are lost and scared as to the consequences of letting their children begin mandatory studies online.

 Some schools and teachers are relatively cool now and not partaking of the “second-degree crisis". They were able to seamlessly continue online engagement with their students because they were prepared. Such schools have embraced technology integration for years and have been exposed to the challenges associated with learning and growing in the digital world. As the saying goes: those who bleed more during training, bleed less in battle. Therefore, managing the COVID 19 crisis was relatively less stressful for them.

Seeger, et.al (1998) proposed 3 elements of crisis which I see in this COVID 19 hit on the education sector. Online learning due to lockdown:

(a) is a threat to schools and allied educational organisations.

 (b) constitutes an element of surprise for schools and

(c) offers a short decision time for many schools and educational administrators.

Any school that experienced these three elements, is most likely hit by the "second-degree crisis".

 Managing COVID 19 Hit on Education Institutions

 In Nigeria, about 10.5 million children are not in school even though primary education is officially free and compulsory.

Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a disruptive and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders. It is clinically clear that the education sector is facing 21st-century challenges and thus requires 21st-century solutions. It is safe to say that the solution(s) should be strategically adopted to allow for sustainability and reduce the "second-degree crisis" I identified.

 Teachers would agree with me that for some, this staying at home has been a period of unspeakable stress, stretching, worrying and uncertainty. Really, many a few educators were able to hit the ground running with digital classrooms and all the associated parameters, because they were PREPARED for it.

It is a positive thing to hear noises about online teaching and ed-tech tools, including the selling of technology integration training to teachers. The sudden television classes and radio classes for populace that lack electricity. All sounds good but our lack of systemic preparedness will make it a less than fruitful effort. That is an element of second-degree crisis.

 Before now, many schools and teachers have been indifferent to educational technology integration. The unresponsiveness of the government at both the state and the federal level to the provision of necessary facilities to give technology integration a soft landing in schools is alarming. I remember on occasion, the ed-tech team I worked with have had to scale down my ed-tech training contents because feedback from attendees was pointing to the fact that educators can't practice most of the things learnt during tech sessions in their schools. My motivation and reply to such teachers were: “you are not learning this for now; it is for your next level". The next level could be getting a teaching position in Ivy League schools or as it is for everyone now- the COVID 19 stay at home level.

Buying into the argument of Venette (2003), which sees crisis has a process of transformation where the old system can no longer be maintained, one would agree that our education system is long overdue for an overhaul. Our curriculum for students and teacher training (both pre-service and in-service) needs to be revamped. Our pedagogy and what will call school need to be redefined. No one solves a problem with the same level of a mindset that created it.

 The same government, school administrators, and educators who have been lackadaisical about ed-tech cannot suddenly embrace it for effectiveness. This is what I mean: the responses of many schools to this imminent need for online teaching and learning were fueled by the fear of losing out in their usual competition. As an ed-tech specialist, I would say that technology integration is beyond profit-making, winning the business competition or advancing political 'brouhaha'. It is about the survival of the education system and the sustainability of 21st-century learning. Therefore, the new era of learning and schooling online demands strategic planning and deliberate systematic buying into rather than reactive and noisy measures as demonstrated by most schools and government in Nigeria.

 Also, this is not the time to do panic learning or reactively dive into the provision of online learning in your school, if you haven't started before. I see a lot of training proliferating on integrating technology, online learning methodologies; and many are doing panic learning. Yes, this has a positive effect. After all, necessity births invention. However, it is too late to prepare for now. Before you get your feet in the socks, the term will be over. Be sure of this, some entrepreneurs will sell you courses just to cash on your money this season. They are trained to maximise opportunities for profit. (I wrote this advisably).

 The best way for schools to forge ahead now is not to initiate too many new things. As an expert of certain repute, I can tell you that biting more than you can chew and maladroit adoption of ed-tech tools is not how to respond and manage disruptive change. The school system will just end up going forth and back and by the time the COVID 19 lockdown is over, we would have succeeded in creating more stress in the system. A vivid advantage this will, however, offer is that it would have helped to stretch our mindset to the realm of new possibilities.

 COVID 19 and the Inequality Divide in Education

Untill we get equality in education,we won't have an equal society... Sonia Sotomayor

 As succinctly stated earlier, I believe that in the 21st century, there will be a redefinition of what is considered as in-school or out-of-school children. For example, during this lockdown, it was practically impossible for over 90% of schools to engage their students who were a few months ago considered as in-school students. While students around the develop world relatively seamlessly switched to online classes, ours simply became sudden “dropouts”. Schools in the developed world only focused on improving the quality of digital education to accommodate the unprecedented robustness this period deserves.

On the other hand, only a minute fraction of Nigerian schools could switch to online teaching and learning; not to mention improving the quality of access and quality of delivery. Hence, the need for the refinement of the term “access to quality education”.

In her publication, COVID-19: Altering Our Perspective On Education Forever, Adetola Salau, the Senior Special Assistant to the Lagos State Government on STEM education stated that the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the digital divide that exists between people who have access to the internet and those who don’t either due to their inability to get devices, data or their lack of digital literacy skills.

 Our Nigerian university system is the most hit. All students are at home and no vivid plan to engage them. Our lectures are proficiently analogue; it is a pool of professors who cannot design a simple PowerPoint presentation. How would the Nigerian undergraduate ever catch up with counterparts in other clans? It should be on record that we are all in a global village-the world. Our nation is losing her competitive edge.

 Recommendation

•  In this era sudden and unprecedented educational disruption, government and the public-private partnership should increase investment in remote learning from the Primary to higher institutions of learning.
•  Policies around putting facilities and necessary amenities such as electricity and access to affordable data services for educational purposes should no longer be handled as trivial or politicized.
•  The policies on remote/distance/online learning must seek to facilitate inclusive learning opportunities for children and youth. In this drive towards the possibilities of adopting or integrating online learning into our school system, the vulnerable and displaced children should be in the big picture as government and educational institutions fabricate policies for the future of learning, the necessity of which COVID 19 pandemic has revealed.
•  Schools should redefine their mission and strategies for educating and evaluate their technology integration readiness.
•  Schools should carry out a competency evaluation of the tech skills of the teachers. Reference should be made to UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers and other international frameworks.
•  This evaluation will help schools to formulate individualized technology integration CPD for their teachers and administrators. This, of course, will be extended to students and their families. We cannot afford to leave anyone behind, again.

Enough of not walking the talk. Our children demand better classrooms, with or without walls. My admonition to fellow teachers: take professional development personally. I am enjoying my online teaching this period because I was years prepared for it. The skills can't be drunk like water, they are hot soup that requires systematic acquisition.

It is too late to learn for today!

To everyone, I hope by the time unprecedented lockdown is over and students are back to school, we will all not relax and continue in our 19th-century approach. I hope there will still be trainers on board to offer trainings to teachers after this cash-in rush is over. I hope schools will make training in technology integration a priority. I hope our governments would have realised how unprepared we were and strategically rise to prepare for tomorrow. This may not be the last lockdown nature has in store!

Let us all always learn for tomorrow. This is the key to crisis management.

Reference

Salau Adetola (2020). COVID-19: Altering Our Perspective On Education Forever.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/covid-19-altering-our-perspective-education-forever-adetola salau/?trackingId=p2%2BSGfN1Qh2sTZMGunCbKQ%3D%3D.Retrieved on 3rd of April, 2020 18:00pm.

 Seeger, M. W.; Sellnow, T. L.; Ulmer, R. R. (1998). "Communication, organization and crisis". Communication Yearbook. 21: 231–275.

 UNESCO (2020). Global Education Coalition COVID-19 Education Response,https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/globalcoalition.Retrieved on 4th of April, 2020 18:00 pm.

 UNICEF (2020). Nigeria Education, https://www.unicef.org/nigeria/education. Retrieved 4th of April, 2020 .17: 00 pm

 Venette, S. J. (2003). Risk communication in a High-Reliability Organization: APHIS PPQ's inclusion of risk in decision making. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Proquest Information and Learning.

 Pictures are from https://www.unicef.org and https://en.unesco.org