ONLINE CLASS: THE TORTURE OF STUDENTS
Inda-John Elizabeth
Without a doubt, the pandemic brought a lot of changes and challenges. The distance we have to keep away from one another, the masks, the sanitizers, and recently the vaccine. If these were all Covid-19 had to offer then maybe we wouldn’t be so bothered, but it also shut down institutions: churches, mosques, schools, markets, all buildings that over a hundred people assembled in. We had to break off relationships, families had nothing to eat, the economy became worse. A lot happened during the lockdown that Africa and her leaders didn’t handle well, especially Nigeria.
The Western world’s solution to Covid-19’s effect on education was to bring classes online and we could see the effect of that. No doubt, no form of change is easy. However, we saw the way students quickly adapted to the new teaching system. We observed how they took their assessments online and most people loved it. Teachers became ‘student-centric’ and did their absolute best to make the classes understandable for each student. They used apps like Zoom, Mixlr, Google Meet, Moodle App, Seesaw etc. All these happened while the majority of the schools in Nigeria were still closed coupled with the ASUU strike that lasted for about nine months. Although the new teaching system accepted by The Western world was desirable, we wondered if it was the way forward for the Nigerian tertiary education.
Then came the end of ASUU strike, 24th of December 2020, a real Christmas present to students of tertiary Institutions. Rejoicing in the fact that we would go back to school again, we checked our various schools for resumption dates. Some schools resumed with strict Covid-19 rules; always have a mask and a sanitizer with you and yes that was reasonable. Then, The University of Ibadan and some of the other universities decided that we’d resume online. They were going to give the lecturers time to fully learn how to use the new system. Some rejoiced, some lamented, some panicked. Are we ready?
Approximately three months after full resumption, we still don’t know the answer to this question. Optimistically, we can’t say we aren’t ready. To an extent the lecturers are doing their best. But Is their best enough?
There are many things fighting against the Nigerian Student’s access to Online Learning. First of all the terrible internet connection in the country, then the cost of data, lack of power to charge phone batteries, lack of serene environment to learn, and worst of all, the lecturer who may not understand any of these. It is a tough time for the students of UI. Students have tried their best, some relocated to apartments around the school for better learning with their mates. Getting power banks and generators to power phones and laptops for online learning. Even with all these, it would be nice to see the efforts encouraged by the institution, for instance, giving us data to run our classes or slides for easy virtual learning.
These are not the only things affecting the Students. Some lecturers are not all up to date on the use of the zoom app. They then spend more time trying to get the app before giving you materials to go read. The classes aren’t exactly interactive and some departments didn’t start classes until the 6th week of resumption. This, of course results in a rushed learning that no one understands.
These changes have made some best students, worse students. Some have gone into depression and there’s a huge prediction that many will fail as a result of this.
The question begs to be asked again: are we ready? If this is the condition of the first and best in Nigeria, what would be the fate of the others? Is Nigeria really ready for online classes? Is she ready to compete with her mates abroad? Is she?
