By Kamaldeen Aliagan
The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused globally pandemonium, as of 30th of January, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the pandemic as a global health emergency and the development has thrown Medical scientists, researchers and educationists into sleepless nights to devising ways of mitigating the negative effects of the global health crisis in all sectors of lives.
The easy spread of this virus made people to wear a mask as precautionary measures, introduction of total lockdown, use gloves and hand sanitizer on a daily basis that resulted in paradigm shift in people’s way of life globally.
Traditionally, we have seen that for every event that affects our lives, there are several unintended consequences. Over the past few months, the world has grasped with the impact of Covid-19. Primarily, a health-related issue, its impact is far-reaching and one area which has been significantly affected is education. All over the world, schools have been forced to close, and Nigeria is not left out.
In Kwara State, prior to outbreak of the pandemic, there have been ongoing education reforms that geared towards addressing educational imbalances at ensuring that children everywhere are giving chance to live, to be good and productive citizens, useful to themselves and society in general.
This is an all-inclusive education system embarked upon by the His Excellency; Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq-led administration to ensure access to quality and sound education for all students by effectively meeting their diverse needs in a responsive way. It is about how we develop and design our schools, classrooms, and programs so that all students can learn and participate in learning effectively.
Of course, can we estimate how much the Covid-19 pandemic has affected education? Are the estimated 46 million students that were forced to stay at home in Nigeria still learning? With the uncertainty regarding how long the shutdown will last, there have been several interventions by government and nongovernmental organisations to ensure that students are still learning.
Renovation, Rehabilitation and Preparing Schools for Resumption
In line with the global trends, apart from the comprehensive renovation of eight Secondary Schools and rehabilitation of block of classrooms in twenty-five schools across the three Senatorial Districts in the state, the present administration has also introduced a “Mass Media Class” for senior secondary school students in the state to mitigate the effect of the closure of schools due to the Corona Virus pandemic.
By this programme, students preparing for WAEC and NECO examinations can sit back at home and watch or listen to lessons by the teachers on Television and Radio stations as scheduled. The programme is designed in such a way that the resourceful teachers on different subjects brought on Radio to teach SS3. The radio and television classes were designed in such a way that students will be allowed to call for questions and clarifications. The opportunity to continue their learning on visual and audio in order to meet up with the syllabus has greatly increased their confidence for preparation of the WAEC Exams that is going on now and other that is coming up soon.
While the State government was preparing to unveil the second episode of “Mass Media Class” in continuation of syllabus for both basic classes and exit classes (JSS3 and SS3) students, the Federal government announced the official reopening of schools for exit classes. Although, reopening of schools does not mean the end of Covid -19 but rather to allow certificate classes to write WAEC, NECO, BECE, etc, examinations and also prepare them for future purposes. The federal government announced August 3rd, 2020 as the official date resumption of schools.
In conformity with the directive of Federal government to reopen schools, the Honourable commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development announced 5th August as the official resumption of SS3 class while JSS3 resumed on 17th August, 2020.
Prior to the announcement of reopening of schools, the Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development has directed all the Principals in the state to prepare for the resumption of their students by tiding the school environment, fumigation and the arrangement of classes in accordance with the guidelines of NCDC and Federal Ministry of Education.
Flattening the Curve
As a part of the Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq-led administration’s efforts to flatten the curve of Covid-19 transmission, the state made Sixty-five thousand face masks, fifty thousand 200ml hand sanitizers and two thousand 1 liter of Hand sanitizers available for free distribution to schools in the states.
During the official presentation of protective kits to Ministry of Education by the Deputy Governor, the Chairman of Covid-19 team in the state, Mr. Kayode Alabi, enjoined the Ministry to make sure that the protective kits reach all the certificate students that is going to resume for continuation of their syllabus and preparation for forthcoming examinations.
According to him, “the nose masks and sanitizers are to be distributed to both Junior Secondary school students and Senior Secondary students across the state. He further said, government will not leave any stone unturned in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic and urged the school authorities to comply with various Covid-19 protocols to stay safe”.
The Honourable commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Hajia Fatimah Bisola Ahmed swiftly swung into actions to distribute the protective kits to All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS). During the distribution to Principals, she informed them that the provision of protective kits to teachers and students will afford you the opportunity to have hitch free examination and prevent t you from contracting Covid-19 virus.
Hajia Ahmed also engaged on the sensitization of students and teachers in some schools visited on the need to maintain Physical distance. She implored them to make sure that there is strict compliance with safety guides of NCDC and Federal Ministry of Education in schools.
Honourable Commissioner emphasized that, monitoring teams from the Ministry and its agencies will be going round for monitoring and inspection of the level of Covid-19 safety guide compliance. Any principal or school authority that is endangering the life of our students will be sanctioned accordingly.
“Government will not take any excuses that are going to jeopardize its efforts in eradicating transmission of Covid-19 but rather punish anybody that violates the guidelines”.
This gesture by the government on provision of protective kits to both teachers and students was highly commended by the Presidents, All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools, Alhaji Toyin Abdullahi. He therefore assured the government of even distribution to all schools in the state and also monitoring the usage.
Quality Assurance and Fight against Examination Malpractices
The prompt action in provision of protective kits to students and monitoring of safety guide compliance by state government was also applauded by the State Director of Quality Assurance Bureau, Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs. Orukotan Lydia.
In her remarks, “I commended the state government under the leadership of His Excellency, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for provision of protective kits to schools and the prompt actions in monitoring the compliance in schools across the state”.
She however called stakeholders to support the present administration in its efforts at taming the spread of Covid-19 in Kwara State.
On the issue of examination malpractices, the state government has reiterated its determination to eradicate examination malpractices in the state. This was disclosed by the state Commissioner for Education during emergency meeting with all Principals and Private School Owners in Ilorin recently.
“Let me use this medium to warn you that the State Government will not hesitate to deal with any Principal or School found wanting on his duties during ongoing WAEC examination. Government will not fold its arms to allow what happened last year to repeat itself. Over thirty million penalties paid following WAEC’s blacklists of 165 Schools over rampant examination malpractices are still afresh in our memory” she said.
Hajia Ahmed revealed that apart from swapping of principals to different schools, there will be secret invigilators and intelligent officers in order to ensure compliance. She further said, in addition to this, anti-corruption Agencies will be moving round to arrest and prosecute anybody that is aiding and abetting examination malpractices or involved in any form of sharp practices around the school premises.
She urged the school authorities and parents to encourage students to prepare very well for the examinations and abide by the rules and regulations that guide the examination rather than look forward to a system that aids and abets cheating.
In her words, “you should all go back and hand down my warning to invigilators, parents and students, if any amount has been paid for such examination malpractice services, you should return it before it is too late. There will be no clemency for anybody found wanting in this regard”.
In his remark, the Chairman Teaching Service Commission, Alhaji Abubakar Bello appreciated His Excellency, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for his laudable achievements in the Education sector within less than two years in office.
He warned stakeholders in the education sector not to sabotage the efforts of the present administration rather to join hands with the government to eradicate examination malpractices in the state.
In his contribution, the president, Kwara State chapter of All Nigerian Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools, Alhaji Toyin Abdullahi stressed their readiness to complement efforts of the present administration in making sure that examination malpractices is a thing of the past in Kwara State.
He stressed that now that Principals are not going to supervise or invigilate in their respective schools, any Principal found culpable in malpractices should be ready to face the music alone.
Also speaking is President, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Dr. AbdulRahman Adetunji assured the state government that what happened last year on examination malpractices will not repeat itself.
He further said the Association Taskforce on examination has engaged Civil Defense to assist them in curbing malpractices in the state.
Aliagan is the Press Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Human and Capital Development, Ilorin, Kwara State