It is no longer news that the Covid19 Pandemic has shaken the world to its core. It started like a joke with the first confirmed case on November, 17, 2019 in Wuhan, China before spreading to more than 170 countries, rattling most economies and claiming over 809,000 deaths globally.

All affected countries are fishing for new strategies and coping mechanisms to adopt in revamping their economies and seeking ways to offer support to their citizens who have lost jobs and businesses because of the prolonged lockdown.

Nigeria is also battling with the effects. With over 52,000 cases, over 38,000 recoveries and a little over 1000 deaths, Nigeria had to ease her lock-down being in phases to avoid a total economic collapse, especially with the crash in oil revenue which happens to be the mainstay of the nation’s economy.

It would not be out of place to say that, the Covid19 pandemic has exposed our society’s failings like never before. It has laid bare the accumulated years of failure of leadership. The rot of two very critical sectors – our public health and education – have become glaring, shamefully. While we had always known that these sectors are neglected, not many of us were prepared for the confrontation of the abysmal reality of it all. 

Unfortunately, while Covid19 has forced urgent attention for the health sector, the education sector looks ever more likely to fall off the cliff on which it has been precariously set. With the exception of the high-fee private schools that were able to keep a semblance of academic studies alive during the lockdown, Nigeria’s education apparatus totally collapsed.

These private schools, through their various online platforms and various digital tools, such as the Zoom App, Google classroom, Google Teams, Screencastify and even Whatsapp, continued teaching their students. The problem is that their student are the few children of the very affluent.

The majority of students, who attend private and public schools, which do not have the resources for online studies have remained locked-down and out of learning. Some of their schools are permanently out of business, as they relied on fees to stay afloat. 

The pandemic and ensuing lockdown exposed our many mushroom private schools and underfunded public schools for what they truly are: inefficient academic institutions. They form the bulk of our school system and cater for the vast majority of students in many parts of Nigeria but could not operate online school successfully.

Firstly, they have teachers who do not possess the needed digital skills to adapt to this new demand. These teachers are too poor to pay to learn the required new skills. The schools and teachers who do not possess the needed digital tools such as laptops and good internet facilities. 

Beyond the teachers and schools’ failings, even their students do not have the means to learn from home, if we bring this Covid19 education reality back to majority of students’ homes. They do not have e-learning tools such as computers/ smartphones, internet access and even steady power supply.

Some of them do, but their parents are not skilled enough to guide them through learning. Worse still, many parents were not willing to pay for this “extra’’ arrangement, especially at a time when most of them faced salary cuts, job losses and failed businesses.

Now, the question is this, if private schools grappled unsuccessfully with this challenge, what then happened to pupils/students in government schools? What was the lot of millions of children who depend on public institutions of learning? What happened to schools and pupils in towns and villages spread across the 774 local governments of our dear country?

Your guess is as good as mine is. They hibernated, and are still hibernating, away while the children of the affluent learn unhindered in the ‘exciting new realities of online education’. Surprisingly, even tertiary institutions that should have been at the forefront of e-learning mostly remained closed. Talk about the irony of a nation steeped in an abject lack of vision and purposefulness. 

Did government put any contingency plan in place for these ones? Perhaps you could point to the promised televised school on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). How many of them know the television station exist? Do they have the power supply to watch it? Did the broadcast even happen at all? You can guess the answers. . 

Overall, we have a terrible situation. I have concluded that, if nothing is done urgently, the entire economy will fall victim. Already our educational system churns out graduates who cannot read, write or make simple sentences. They are the product of a failed, vicious cycle of deep seethed mediocrity, which started from the foundational stage. 

Coming back to the issue at hand, it is still not clear when schools will resume. Some private schools have at least put some conditions in place for resumption – at further expense to parents. However, one wonders how prepared public schools are. Some of these public schools, like the one I attended in Kaduna almost twenty years ago have almost 100 pupils per class. How will schools manage them amidst the Covid19 realities?

How would social distancing be maintained? Who would provide face masks and other safety needs for pupils and staff? Should government provide these things, who will ensure that the staff do not take these things home or sell them in a system so steeped with corruption? What happens to the overall school curriculum? Are there policies in place?

I can only conclude that the prolonged closure of schools is because government is unprepared and is only trying to save face by maintaining school closure. Whether this is true or not, the children of the poor that are the ultimate losers! 

As some people would ask, “Which way Nigeria”?

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Pulse Contributors is an initiative to highlight diverse journalistic voices. Pulse Contributors do not represent the company Pulse and contribute on their own behalf.

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About the author: Adejoke Stephanie Henry is a school Administrator, writer, and media content creator. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communication, with a major in Television and Radio Broadcasting from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. ADEJOKE is a wife and a mother. She writes from Abuja.