Stakeholders are intensifying calls for inclusive delivery of blended, face-to-face learning in the classroom with large-scale, remote and low-tech solutions. FRANK IKPEFAN and DAMOLA KOLA-DARE report
Nigeria has made great strides in improving access to education, increasing on-time school enrolment and building school infrastructure. However, education has experienced unprecedented disruption since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. This is being exacerbated mostly tin the North, especially the Northwest, through attacks on schools. The strikes embark upon by university unions further dealt a serious blow to learning.
At the peak of the pandemic in 2020, nationwide closures of schools impacted more than 50 million children in Nigeria alone, with their learning disrupted, according to United Nations Children Fund Country Representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins.
More than half a school year was lost and cosmetic spending on education came under tremendous pressure due to the global slowdown of economic activities.
Also, frequent attacks on schools, including abduction of children, who should always be safe in school, also resulted in prolonged school closures, Hawkins stated.
But, with the return to the new normal, education systems are strengthening the delivery of blended learning, combining face-to-face learning in the classroom with remote learning. Blended approaches include large-scale, low-tech solutions that do not require Internet-enabled devices like radio and television and high-tech alternatives such as virtual classrooms, video conferencing, animated lessons and online resources libraries that require internet-enabled devices.
The Nigeria Learning Passport
The Federal Ministry of Education, in partnership with UNICEF and through the funding support of the Global Partnership for Education (GEP), developed the Nigeria Learning Passport to support children and youths to continue their learning and skills acquisition for their future, owing to the disruptions witnessed in the past. The platform was launched on March 24, at the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, with many stakeholders in attendance.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said more than 9.7 million Nigerian students are at risk of never returning to school, with their learning left behind.
Speaking at the launch of the platform, which is an online, mobile and soon-to-be offline learning platform, Russell said the platform would provide continuous education to three million learners in 2022 alone and 12 million by 2025.
According to her, the platform is designed for pre-primary, primary and secondary school learning. The platform provides over 13,000 digitalised curricula, instructional and supplementary learning materials in all core curricular subjects for primary 1 – 6, Junior Secondary School 1 – 3 and Senior Secondary School 1 – 3.
Children, youth and teachers can access a digitalised curriculum providing learning materials in all core curriculum subjects for primary one to six and all Junior and Senior Secondary School classes. UNICEF stated that with the launch, Nigeria has joined 20 countries in the world where the Learning Passport is reaching children with improved learning opportunities.
In a goodwill message delivered at the occasion, Russell noted that the “passport” will help education resources to reach the most vulnerable and marginalised learners.
She said: “Before COVID-19, about 10.5 million Nigerian children aged between five and 14 were not in school. Today in Nigeria, more than 9.7 million children are at risk of never returning to school, their learning left behind. The learning passport can help change that.
“By offering simple, easy and fun ways to learn, as well as tailor-made training programmes, the learning platform will help respond to the needs of every child. With online, offline and mobile options, it can help us reach the most vulnerable and marginalised learners.”
She added that Nigeria’s education sector faces many challenges that have contributed to keeping more than 10.5 million children out – of – school in Africa’s most populous nation. Rusell said the figures have been exacerbated in recent times by attacks on learning institutions and abduction of students.
“One of these challenges is access to quality learning, exacerbated in recent times by attacks on learning institutions and abduction of students.
“Both have made parents fearful of sending their children to school. The disruption to education by school attacks has meant millions of children have significantly missed out on learning they would have acquired if they had been in the classroom,” Russell stated.
Why the learning passport?
Director, ICT, Federal Ministry of Education, Abubakar Isah explained that the idea was to turn classrooms into digital spaces. Isah said the platform is available to all Nigerians across the country and that its contents are free to everyone.
He said: “It is about turning our classes into digital space. It started after the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools were shut down and 1.2 billion kids across the globe went home and there was no schooling and there was this concept of digital literacy to keep them in school; to keep them continuing their education and the ministry came up with the platform to harness what was available for our children to continue learning. “We had an agreement with private sector providers who provided us with their language platforms. But, we also thought that after that, what next? We can’t keep going back to beg. We were fortunate to have our partners – UNICEF and GEP came up with the support for us to produce our own digital platform that is available for the entire country and it is absolutely free. “We have more than 15,0000 lessons on that platform built with the Nigerian curriculum and 100 per cent Nigerian teachers. Everything is made in Nigeria. The whole idea is that in school, out of school, you can have access to it, use it and study with it. “Our focus in the next phase of the project is kids who are in hard-to-reach environments and kids who don’t have devices. Our focus was to build this system, which we have done now. The next phase of the programme is how do we ensure that we have as many kids as possible because there are many variables we are thinking of.”
45,000 teachers trained in digital literacy
Isah added: “We have trained over 45, 000 teachers across the country on how to use this platform and we are hoping that once they know how to use it, they can cascade it to other teachers and it is going to be a continuous thing.
“The important part is that the platform is already there, it is running, it is hosted and it is free. We have other e-learning sites the ministry has developed. It is in line with this because the Learning Passport just covers the basics. We also have sites that cover the entire school curriculum from Primary to Senior Secondary School and then we have another site for teachers.”
Platform not designed to replace teachers
According to Isah, the platform is not designed to replace teachers.
He said: “The Learning Platform and all the other government e-learning sites are not intended to kill or replace teachers. We can’t replace teachers and we are not also thinking of killing entrepreneurs that have other solutions in the market. We know it is a big space and we also know that there are some people that cannot afford entrepreneurs’ costs. So, the government came up with this solution.
“We are going to be very conservative. It is better to aim lower and be able to hit the top, which we think we have the capacity for. There are states like Lagos, Benue and Edo that already have something going. We are just going to ride on that and make it available to them.
“It is not a Federal Government project. It is a Nigerian project supported by our very good friend UNICEF and GEP. We are hoping everybody will be carried along and it will be available to everybody.”
90 per cent schools in Nigeria without internet connection, says UNICEF
Also, UNICEF Education Manager, Rudra Sahoo said: “This project is designed to access learning anytime, any day. If you see this Nigeria Learning Passport, it is a flexible, free and tailored for the children to learn in school as well as out-of-school.
“In Nigeria, 15 million children were out-of-school due to the COVID-19 pandemic and children nearly lost two quarters of school. So, we thought about how we can reach children in Nigeria by providing a remote alternative so that learning can continue.
“We know nearly 82 – 90 per cent of the schools in Nigeria are not connected to the internet. That’s why the off line structure is the game changer, that means there is going to be an off device – that is an off structure where students can connect to that device without any internet connectivity and can experience the same experience with the mobile application.
“Within that low – cost off line structure, that means at any point in time nearly 93 – 94 children or devices can be connected to that off device without any internet connectivity and within a radius of 300 metre.”
He added that UNICEF is in discussion with internet service providers for smooth deployment of the platform in countries where it is being operated.
NAPTAN: make learning platform inclusive
However, the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), the umbrella body of parents of children in all schools nationwide, appealed to the Federal Government and UNICEF to make the learning platform accessible to every student.
NAPTAN President Haruna Danjuma said the platform, as presently constituted, could only serve 35 per cent of students, cutting off 65 per cent in hard- to-reach areas out of the learning opportunities the platform provides.
He said: “As a stakeholder in the education sector, my contribution to the newly launched digital learning platform by FMoE and UNICEF is, it will be accessible to only 35 per cent of those in the urban areas, leaving over 65 per cent of the population living in the rural areas; most of whom lack electricity, solar energy and financial strength.
“They don’t have enough teaching staff, no conducive environment for teaching and learning and most of the structures are dilapidated. NAPTAN is calling on the FMoE and UNICEF to do the needful.”
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo noted that there must be a change in the education sector to ensure continuity of learning. Osinbajo, who was represented at the launch by the Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, said: “To ensure continuity of learning for all children and the resilience of education systems to future shocks, we must change and reimagine the education sector.
“Deploying innovations that rethink the current methodologies, including new approaches to delivering education in ways that defy the digital divide, and ensuring learning continuity in emergencies, has become imperative.”
The vice president said there had been significant improvement in the sector, but access to learning remained a big challenge.
“Over the last decade, Nigeria has made great strides in improving access to education. In the last five years, pre-primary school participation has increased from 45 per cent to 61 per cent, primary enrolment has increased by 5 million. The rate of out-of-school children has decreased by 10 per cent from 42 per cent to 32 per cent.
“These are phenomenal achievements but access to school does not equate to learning. Nigeria is facing a learning crisis. Millions of children and young people are not developing even the basic skills they need to break out of poverty due to destruction to schooling and learning by incessant security, COVID-19 as well as more recent attacks.
“To ensure continuity of learning for all children and the resilience of education systems to future shocks, we must change and reimagine the education sector.
“Deploying innovations that rethink the current methodologies, including new approaches to delivering education in ways that defy the digital divide, and ensuring learning continuity in emergencies, has become imperative,” he said.
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Global Partnership for Education (GPE), Charles North, who spoke virtually, said the launch would provide a continuous learning as well as break digital divide.
Why varsity activities, especially researches, must be accessible online
Vice Chancellor, Ahman Pategi University, Patigi, Kwara State Prof. Mahfouz Adedimeji said the coronavirus pandemic exposed the abysmally poor virtual learning infrastructure of the nation’s universities. He urged government and university authorities to pay proper attention to it.
He said: “The outbreak of COVID-19 in Nigeria in 2020 and its disruption of our normal way of life clearly revealed that the online learning infrastructure in our public universities is abysmally poor. It is imperative that attention is given to it by the governments and the universities themselves.”
Adedimeji noted that many private universities performed very well during the lockdown, but public universities found it tough to commence online learning, not to talk of sustaining it.
The VC bemoaned poor internet services in the nation’s universities, noting that without a functional and robust internet, the universities would continue to lag behind.
“While many private universities were able to switch seamlessly to the online platforms during the lockdown and immediately afterwards, it was challenging to many public universities to do so as most of them still operate at Education 1.0 while many parts of the world are operating at Education 4.0 or at least Education 3.0.
“The poor internet infrastructure in many Nigerian universities has a significant impact on the poor rating of our universities. In today’s world, the reality is that whatever is not online is assumed not to exist. So, if universities and their activities, especially researches, are not accessible online, ranking agencies assume they are not available. In other words, without a robust IT infrastructure, there is no way forward in the 21st Century for our universities.
“Meanwhile, since man is the purposive agent of creation, what is the rating of the salaries and emoluments of Nigerian lecturers who are supposed to improve the ranking of our universities? The issue of revamping the system and increasing the ranking has to go parri passu with enhancing staff welfare.
“Lecturers deserve more pay, universities deserve more funding, Nigeria deserves more internet penetration and the entire system, both at the micro and macro levels, deserve more attention for us to achieve better results,” Adedimeji said.
A call on Network Service Providers to make data available freely
For Director, Centre for General Nigerian Studies, Lagos State University (LASU), Prof. Biodun Akinpelu, online learning would remain a pipe-dream until Network Service Providers make data available freely on university and college campuses.
Akinpelu noted that students continue to complain because they spend so much on data to attend online classes.
“Online learning cannot be convincingly embraced until our Network Service Providers make data available freely on university and college campuses. After all, every airport is made to enjoy free data for all purposes.
“Unfortunately, students keep complaining that attending online lectures is very expensive as they need to spend a lot of funds on data. This has added to the pain of parents,” he said.
He continued: “I think we are gradually waking up to realities in Nigerian public universities as per online learning infrastructure.
“In 1992, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) declared strike in Nigeria universities, and it lasted for about 18 months. The entire university system was paralysed.
“Two years ago, COVID-19 pandemic led most universities in Nigeria to work towards alternative instructional delivery system. Some tried the interactive advantages of some social media platforms and learning was to some extent restored, at least to a noticeable level.
“Some state governments started omnibus instructional delivery platforms for their universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. Federal universities also got their students engaged, some using Zoom, WhatsApp or even local institution-based TV system. The level of success may not be as high but it can be rated above 50 per cent.
“Today, most universities are moving a number of their largely populated courses to web-based online platforms. Lagos State University, for instance, moved all its General Studies Courses to online formats and this paid off on space and human resource management.”
Dr. Oluwafisayo Adebimpe, a lecturer in Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, said online learning was not practicable because of the nation’s economic situation.
She noted that most public universities are under-funded, lack ICT/technological infrastructure, and teaching equipment. Adebimpe also said epileptic power supply is a major challenge.
“Online learning/ E-learning in public universities is still an integral part of learning but not a viable option with current economic situation in Nigeria. The reasons are not far to seek. Most public universities are under-funded, lack ICT/technological infrastructures, and teaching equipment. Epileptic power supply is also a factor.
“Most courses are designed to be taught practically apart from the theoretical aspects, which can limit/restrict the scope and knowledge of students. The goal is to produce world class students, moreover poor service delivery must be guided against, if structures are not put in place.
“Some other important factors also need to be considered, the cost implications (financial implications) and socio- economic status of students and parents. Most of these students can not all afford to pay school fees not to talk of buying laptops, smartphones or tablets.
“Will there be access to internet facilities; is the government ready to partner with the universities and service/network providers? We are all aware of limited access and availability of internet connections,” she said.
Varsity undergraduates weigh in
Olatunji Oluwayomi, a student at Ekiti State University, said online learning can never work in Nigerian public universities because of some unavoidable circumstances such as network issues and inadequate knowledge of the lecturers on virtual learning.
“E-learning in Nigerian universities is just a waste of time as the country is yet to improve its network issues and that remains one of the reasons students cannot get quality virtual learning,” he said.
Ololade Peace, a 200-Level Mass Communication student at Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) said poor educational system is affecting the use of online learning.
“Online learning is a great idea to enhance the educational system. It’s an easy way of learning from the comfort zone of the lecturer and the students, both will be able to teach and learn respectively.
“However, online learning in Nigeria has not really been effective because of poor educational system. Interestingly, it is functional in private universities because they are provided with good internet connection in the school, unlike the state or federal universities.
“It will be a great advancement in education if it can be strongly enhanced,” she said.
Nweke Chineye, a 300-Level student at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) said it is important that universities learn to blend with online training.
“Online learning is a beautiful innovation. We are in a digital world and it is imperative we learn to blend with the world’s discoveries,” she said.
A 400-Level Law student at the University of Maiduguri, Emmanuel Ndubueze, said online learning is not feasible for public universities because students are cash-strapped.
“For me, it is good. But you and I know it’s not feasible for public universities given the plethora of challenges. Outdated lecturers who resist anything technology, attitude of students towards it are factors,” he said.
Abdulmaliq Ibrahim, a student at Federal College of Education Abeokuta, said online learning cannot work because of lack of interest from students.
A recent graduate of Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), Ogun State, Solarin Ayomide, said computer illiteracy and unreliable power supply are the reason online learning cannot be successful.
“The perennial problem in Nigeria is the problem of poor electricity, which remains a major setback for a technological advancement. Some students who reside in cities and towns are faced with the problem of epileptic supply of electricity, while the majority of them live in rural areas that are not connected to the national grid.
“Also, most of the students have no knowledge about the computer; hence they are afraid of operating one. Some go to the extent of hiring experts at a cost to fill their admission, registration and all the documents meant for them to fill online,” he said.
