Tayo Oke
The Minister of State for Education, Mr. Emeka Nwajiuba, made it emphatically clear on April 28, in Abuja, that: “There is no date yet for schools to resume”. He stuck to that unambiguous line despite repeated effort to coax him to elaborate, and despite the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)’s stated relaxation of the lockdown earlier imposed on Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states. Closing of schools was a decision arrived at centrally, with no variation or exemption for private schools. It follows, therefore, that any decision to re-open will also be taken from the centre. There are obvious advantages to this stance, but it is also fraught with so many difficulties, some of which are highlighted in this write-up. Blanket closing of schools was indeed the easiest thing in the world for the Federal Government. Re-opening presents a completely different proposition. Is it going to be based on scientific advice alone? Scientists are wont to be extremely cautious, they would recommend the longest prolongation possible. Or, will it be based on the pronouncement of some nebulous “Presidential Task Force”? On mass testing for which Nigeria has no capacity at the moment? On conjectures and permutations of the likelihood and probability of contagion? On a unanimous consent of the schools themselves? But how do they measure that consent? Should it simply be based on a Presidential fiat from the seat of government?
As it seems right now, the most tempting solution would be to stop all resumption until September 2020 for a new academic session. Students would therefore have an unusually extended summer vacation, and much more would have been known about the medical treatment of the virus or its containment between now and then. For publicly-funded institutions, this is a familiar territory, it would barely elicit a grumble. Nigerian institutions are notorious for their random closure of schools. It is not uncommon for a student to spend one, two, or three extra years on top of their normal programme before eventually graduating. This happens mainly through strikes over academic pay and benefits. So, a blanket shutdown of schools until September would be a piece of cake for many. However, for private institutions, it is a logistical nightmare. They pride themselves in keeping their contractual obligation to finish on time. School fees in private schools are no chicken feed after all. How would a final year student forced to come back in the next academic year be treated for fees? Without revenue from students, private institutions cannot function, what then is going to happen to the teachers? Are they going to continue being paid throughout the extended shutdown? If not, where are they supposed to derive their income from since the shutdown is essentially a Force Majeure?
On another note, we have heard a lot about “online teaching” in the last couple of weeks, and how universities especially, have taken to virtual teaching to keep their students actively engaged. The public is being misled about this a little, I am afraid. There is no such thing as ‘normal’ classes resuming online anywhere in this country. While it is possible to organise some teaching through video conferencing or the “Zoom” platform, it is a poor imitation of classroom education as it obviates interactivity. Online teaching can be a highly stilted affair sometimes. It does not give much room for digression may be, also, to use outside examples, or to iron out a specific difficult point to a struggling student; it is more listening than learning most times. That said, an online lecture delivered from a classroom specially adapted for that purpose is fantastic. Students sit in on the class via off-campus locations. But, the online teaching we are talking about in this country relies on students having a normal telephone handset, tablet or laptop, which many do not have. Even those who have will experience all sorts of malfunctioning issues in terms of low battery, poor network coverage, possible hacking incidents, and inadequate credit on their devices. So, online teaching in the context of Nigeria with poor IT infrastructure requires a high level of motivation from students to succeed. How many of such highly motivated students do we have in the country? Anyone who has witnessed some students’ attitude to learning in real time would shudder at the thought of getting them to respond diligently to online instruction. But, ultimately, that is their responsibility if they choose to respond or not.
One very important point to make. Whatever happens, please let no one offer online examination to be done at home, in the comfort of the students’ bedrooms. How do you ascertain that the person answering the questions is not an impostor? Any such exam without the possibility of invigilation would be a sham. There is no doubt, student education is suffering and will continue to suffer for as long as the shutdown subsists. Given the aforesaid, how then should schools re-open if and when the Federal Government issues a directive to that effect? Schools are the most problematic of all places to maintain the policy of “social distancing” for all sorts of obvious reasons; crowded classrooms, playground, dormitory, cafeteria, even exam halls in some cases. At the moment, anyone displaying the symptoms of common cold immediately provokes nervousness by the people around them as they make a beeline towards the nearest exit. How is that going to play out in schools? The best thing would be for schools to implement a staggered re-opening. Let the final year students and those about to write their final exams physically ‘zoom’ in and ‘zoom’ out within a window of two weeks. As they vacate the school premises, the next in line comes in likewise, and the next one after that. In other words, the academic year could still be rescued between now and the end of July this same year.
If, however, there is a blanket re-opening of schools decreed by the Federal Government, then, so be it. In that likely scenario, private schools in particular should take precaution. They should make returning students sign a “release clause”, which absolves the school of responsibility for any transmission of the coronavirus from one student to another or others. Under the law of negligence, the school is obliged to take all ‘reasonable’ care to protect the students, and for that matter, all of their employees, from harm. If an otherwise healthy student suddenly falls ill to the coronavirus shortly on arrival back in school, that student would have recourse in law against the institution. While the Federal Government has the emergency power to shut down schools for a specific period, it has no such power to re-open private schools at will, but the schools would oblige regardless. The exposure of schools to a potentially crippling legal liability is totally unacceptable, of course. Consequently, either the Federal Government steps up and offers unlimited guarantee against such liability, or they rush through legislation in the National Assembly NOW to nullify such law suits. Otherwise, the schools are effectively sitting ducks.
This coronavirus pandemic is a curse for sure, but it could also be turned into a blessing in some sense. The one-size-fits-all approach of the Federal Government to education in this country is in need of a major overhaul. Private schools operate on radically different work ethos and should be managed on a different corporate governance model (See; “Corporate governance model for Nigeria’s private universities”, The PUNCH, January 1, 2019). There is no justification for having a unitary education system in a federal system of government. It is counterintuitive, contradictory and counterproductive. Coronavirus shall come to pass soon enough, but the education sector must not allow this crisis to go to waste.
