COVID-19 exposed weakness of African education system — NBCC boss

Nigeria British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) and the Education First Nigeria Limited (Edufirst) have challenged stakeholders in the nation’s education sector to promote interest of students in using technology to learn.

They also said the outbreak had really shown  the weakness of African education system.

They made the remarks at s the 2020 Edufirst Education conference jointly organised with NBCC in Lagos with about 2,000 participants from the six geopolitical zones of the country connected virtually and “Jobs, Education and Technology: The New Normal,” as the theme.

President and Council Chairman of NBCC, Mr Kalowo Falowo, in his remark, said since COVID-19 pandemic had exposed how terrible the education system was in Africa, education managers should now build on technology to make significant progress in the sector.

He lamented that many African countries had to shut down their academic activities for months as a way of containing COVID-19 spread while developed countries quickly migrated to e-learning.

He said but now that more institutions and people in Africa had the embraced digital mode of teaching and learning as a new normal, the leadership particularly of tertiary schools should, by all means, sustain the new mode.

He said though there were many challenges such as lack of computers and laptops, as well as high cost of internet data and internet failure, confronting majority of the students, the challenges would phase out with time.

On his part, the managing Director of Edufirst, Mr. Moses Imayi, said students especially in Nigeria and at secondary school level would continue to be encouraged in innovations and creativity to help them in their quest for global relevance.

He said e-education had become a new way to go in teaching and learning to remain relevant anywhere globally.

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