COVID-19: Lagos government, schools adopt new ways to engage students

Not wanting pupils and students in public and private schools across the state to be idle, as they stay at home during the COVID-19 lockdown, the Lagos State government, through its Ministry of Education, has been delivering lessons to students on some selected radio and television stations within the state.

Since not all parents and students are aware of this, some schools across the state have also keyed into the vision and localised the lessons to cover a wider spectrum of the curriculum.

Commenting on this development, Gracia Dumez, whose two children are in JSS 3 and SSS 2 in a private school, said while the project is quite laudable, government should make the lessons interactive, aside creating platforms for feedbacks.

The principal, Molan High School, Ikotun, Mr. Akin Afolarin, while addressing parents through his school’s WhatsApp Chat group and calls, said his school adopted this method of teaching/learning process to fill the gap created by the lockdown, as well as keep the children busy.

According to him, the process allows for feedbacks, because teachers and subject teachers alike will send their presentations and learning materials through voice recordings to the school’s WhatsApp platform to the children via their parents. The children listen, carry out given instructions and do their assignments.

He added that these assignments are scored and then sent back to the children through the same process.

He said: “COVID-19 has made us come up with this learning technique, as we do not know how long the lockdown will last. We are conscious of the impact of the pandemic on children, long period of staying away from school and the positive effect of continuous interaction with their studies. It is our hope that the children take advantage of this window to sustain learning.”

Although some parents said this method is eating deep into their pockets, as they have to constantly recharge their lines and fuel their generators for power supply, others said it is temporary and much better than leaving the children idle.