A leading social enterprise, Liberty Career Academy, LCA, has released a comprehensive Policy Brief x-raying how to address the current disruption being faced by the Nigerian education sector due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
The policy brief highlights the overwhelming challenges before the nation’s educational system, as well as the timely solutions to combat such challenges.
According to the report, the narrative currently looks like an extended holiday, since students have not had the opportunity to go back to their classrooms since March 2020, but the obvious problem that needs to be tackled is the inability of the Nigerian child to receive the needed education that will enable him to compete favorably on the international scene and proffer relevant solutions in the global workforce.
Stressing UNICEF’s data on the rate of out of school children, the report states that approximately 10.5 million children aged 5-14 years in Nigeria are not in school, and one in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria.
The report states further that not only is the situation alarming, it is a reality that is fast becoming a global menace as a result of the pandemic.
According to the team led by Mr. Gbenga Rufai, the Executive- Director, “being technology-savvy is important for success in the 21st century and what better way to acquire such skills than through early introduction to technology-driven education.”
He said unfortunately, since March 2020, schools had shut down across the country and due to lack of infrastructure for online learning, education had for the most part grounded to a halt.
He stressed that although privately-run schools had made haphazard attempts to use digital tools to keep their students engaged, the attempts were however not fully approved by ministries of education and thus not guided by any uniform strategy.
According to him, it also effectively cut out millions of children in public schools.
“A non-negotiable option that is currently before the Nigerian educational system is the digitisation of learning processes. This calls for the establishment of a specific digital learning road map that clearly identifies the key players and necessary factors that will make the deployment of e-learning, a success in the Nigerian educational system.
“The report clearly argues that this will not be possible without reviewing existing laws and policies that currently impede the incorporation of digital learning into our educational structure, especially at the grassroots level,” he said.
The LCA Policy brief also identifies an important modality that can be adopted to bring teachers up to speed in the emerging global learning space.
The training and learning model seeks to bridge the learning gap that currently exists between advanced nations of the world and the third world countries, Nigeria being the focus of this publication.
The current turn of events in the world calls for forward thinking leaders and proactive participants in the execution of relevant policies that will drive the needed change in the Nigerian educational system.
The solutions highlighted in this month’s edition of the LCA Policy Brief seeks to address the current problems and chart a new pathway that leads to a radical breakthrough in the Nigerian educational sector.
The full and abridged version of this month’s publication can be accessed on the company’s website – www.libertyhouse.com.ng/publications
Liberty Career Academy is a hub of creative thinkers and strategists.
They have a mandate of assisting organisations and individuals irrespective of demographic differences discover their essence, equip them with the right competencies and guide them in properly expressing it via their careers or business.
The academy provides training, mentorship, scholarship, research and advocacy on related governance and policy issues to achieve her mandate.
