Like we all know, in this country we have three categories of citizens, we have the rich, the middle class and the poor and due to different factors, money is not evenly distributed within these three categories, which makes it hard for learning at home for your children due to the lockdown.
The Rich: this is the category of parents that can provide at least 90% of their children’s school needs.
The Middle Class: this second stage of parents are those who meet up to at least 50% of their children’s school needs sometimes they are not able to pay for school demands on time.
The Poor: these are the category of parents who for the love of education want to send their children to school, but finance keeps hindering their children from proper school activities. Thereby making them provide little or nothing for the children’s school needs.
Apart from these mentioned factors, there are other factors which are as follow:
Finance: Whether we like it or not, money is one of the significant factors when considering a school. Yes, they say cut your coat according to your cloth, but in terms of educating your child, the best or average is usually every parent’s aim. No parent wants their child to go to a school (mostly government-owned) where the teachers are not ready to teach or where their child only learns a subject in a whole day, where proper administration and education is not given out to their child.
So in terms of finance, parents do not consider their position in the above categories, all they think is better education for their child and this alone can lead them to schools where they end up owing a term’s fee or not paying at all. Apart from school, parents have other essential things like shelter, food and health care to provide for their children, So, a child whose parent has pressing needs will not consider subscribing their phones for their child to learn online as a basic need.
Technology: In a country like ours (Nigeria) where our 4G network still runs like 3G and 5G
the system is even being preached against, castigated and passing through different stages of reading in the Senate House, this should show that our technology is way backwards and in this sense, a large number of children (mostly in government schools) level of education is prone to be limited or not at all educated in terms of technology, so, putting a child in a state of emergency to learn how this online educational process is carried out will affect his/her learning process and not ruling out the possibility of the network fluctuations.
Distraction: A child learning from home presents a different level of entertainment compared to children learning in school. In the case of learning at home with a computer or mobile phone, he/she gets distracted by other features these devices carry. They get distracted by their parents/guardians who need them for errands. They get distracted by the television programs being watched by their elderly ones in the living room. They get distracted by other children playing in their compound.
In classes, teachers knowing it’s their duty tends to use strict measures to keep the children in-line with the activities for the day. Still, most parents, due to their closeness with their children, will overlook all these distractions, which most times win over the children’s online learning.
Availability Of Learning Medium: This is talking about the mobile device or laptop and data used
for the learning process. Most parents do not allow their child to own a phone till they are out of secondary school, which is when they are 17 years and above, for this online learning to be successful, a quality mobile phone is an essential item needed for learning.
In a house where a parent has more than two children, how will they share the available device (parents device) when all the lecture timing are the same? How does the child in primary 3 want to learn basic science when the child in senior secondary 2 has geography? The easy access to mobile phone for their children will not be possible, thereby making one forfeit his or her lecture for the other.
Also considering those from a poor background where the only mobile phone they have is that without a browsing capability, so in such cases, how will a child from such background get involved in the online lectures?. In the case of data subscription, online learning requires always being online because any interference can make a child loss whatever was taught that moment, for such to be possible parents always go for a higher subscription plan which involves more money, and for those parents who can’t afford such subscriptions due to the high price rate by service providers, their children will continuously remain absent from the classroom.
Lack Of Proper Explanation: A teacher who is conducting an online class will want to adhere
strictly to the timing because of his or her data, in this case, a child will not be able to ask questions properly as he or she does in the classroom. The teacher won’t get to explain as he or she does at the school, which most times involve demonstrations.
Payment Of Fees: Schools will pay little or no attention to the factors stated above because
once they have teachers coming online to teach your child, they also need those teachers to get paid thereby asking parents to pay the required school fees for their child and if such parents fail to pay, the child gets disconnected from the online classroom.
Extra-Curricular Activities: Parents do not send their children to school for only academic
learning; they also need them to learn morals, discipline and socialization from the school which they don’t get at home. And this process of online learning does not have provisions for such
Teaching Curriculum: Our primary and secondary education runs in private and government
form but still make use of nearly the same curriculum from the ministry, with the same start and stop dates. Now the online government schooling is not prepared for a new session due to the stated factors above, but mostly for the consideration of poor finance from government and parents. But on the other hand, the majority of the private schools have already kick-started the new term, leaving other ill funded schools behind. How will the curriculum be carried out on a triumphant note?
As a concerned Nigerian, you would agree that all these things could be looked into, and adequate measures are put in place to suit both government and private schools all over the country.
