Due to the ravaging Covid-19 pandemic worldwide, the Federal Ministry of Education was constrained to order the closure of schools in the country, but advised schools to teach students online.
However, the idea of online teaching was initially received with mixed feelings with parents and educators saying it might not work out in the country, especially due to lack of regular electricity as well as shortage of funds for data to access the internet.
But within a short time, it was noticed that contrary to the initial belief by stakeholders that it might not work in Nigeria, educators have been hailing students’ fast response to virtual teaching and are now of the view that it might change the way students learn after the Covid-19 experience must have been forgotten.
A teacher, Mr. Jesutomi Alabi, told our correspondent that teaching the students online had become interesting as their response was now faster.
“We connect via Interactive White Board (IWB) each time we have lessons using zoom and Edmodo app and the experience has been excellent,” he said.
Recounting her own experience, Mrs. Tola Jadesola said though online teaching is new “but it’s now embraced by all. Although there is financial challenge, I will recommend we use WhatsApp for this. It’s cheaper.”
Similarly, Mrs. Abidemi Oladele said the experience is new but acceptable to the learners.
Oladele said, “Moving from zoom to Google classroom, marking the children’s assignments using annotations, typing comment on every subject, calls from parents about network issues, when the zoom class is going on, we can’t find the link even when the link is right there! The ID is wrong, the password is incorrect, data.
“Anyway, so far, I’ve been enjoying it. It’s a change in schooling that should be embraced with both arms. COVID-19 is both a curse and a blessing.”
Another teacher, Mr Sadiq Bamidele, noted, “It’s very interesting. The major challenge I see is inadequate devices, a parent with three or four children managing only one device.”
To Miss Toke Emiloju, online teaching is still a new world of experience to most students in Nigeria.
She said, “I attempted the live video lessons twice but response was disappointingly low and I really felt discouraged because I was doing it for free. I teach English Language.
“My findings are: parents can’t cope with data usage, poor internet network and timing may not be suitable.
“But with this experience, we are abandoning live streaming and seeking alternative write and snap and post lessons so they can work at their own time and it is less data consuming, which is working.”
Encouraging other teachers to keep the virtual work going, an educator said everyone needed to embrace online teaching because technology-driven education, which used to be the future had already caught up with the society.
“We have to embrace it. You will keep getting back with practice and use,” he said.
Also adding to the experience, Mr. Yussuf Ogundele said, “Truth be told, online teaching is good. Though expensive, it helps to keep the children busy and to study more.
“It’s an interesting area to explore. It is purely a transfer of your physical personality into the digital space. Classes must be structured in such a way that students are allowed to air their views on all assigned tasks.
“It is just transfer of my physical class into the virtual world. I still welcome them and we use our first two minutes to exchange pleasantries, before we start the lessons. Security tools on the platform will help you keep students sane.”
A parent, Mrs. Ayotunde Akanji, said conducting online classes with her students had been “superb” because it’s a video type, where “you see your teacher teaching and the objectives which she has based her teaching, contents and the previous knowledge review before the main lesson for the day.”
