E-learning: Positive And Negative Outcome so far

    E-learning: Positive And Negative Outcome so far

By-Abdulrahman Taliat,

Online teaching/e-learning is not without a fee, as most private schools are billing parents for the service, failure in which their children are free.

A parent of Atlantic Hall School, Epe, Lagos, who would not want his name mentioned said parents are paying as much N175,000 for online teaching service aside the regular school fees.

“This is bad because they are using it as an avenue to exploit parents. We are all feeling the heat of the pandemic together, as most businesses and jobs are affected,” Mrs. Temitope Adeyanju, a parent and a teacher said in an interview with thenationonlineg.net

However, Mrs temitope pointed out that e-learning has increased the standard of computer literacy among children, bringing them up to par with the standard in the Western world, where it has become like the norm.

“E-learning has also forced parents to learn more and become more computer literate – because they want to meet up with what is being done on their children on the e-platforms. Also, it has helped to create cordial relationships between parents and children, because most of the parents who never had time to go through their children’s work, ostensibly because of the nature of their job, now feel compelled be on top of it,” she said.

“But the cost implication of data being consumed per week is a big challenge to parents. Meanwhile, jobs are being affected. Some parents, as a matter of fact, have lost theirs, while some have had their income reviewed downwards. At the same time,  no parent would be happy to see their children missing out on classes. Many have gone as far as borrowing.  For example, I spend at least N4,500 on data per week for my three children to connect with their classes online. That is on the high side,” she lamented.

Another major challenge is that parents are now at a disadvantage, as they now share their phones and other gadgets with their children. In the process, they sometimes get spoilt or broken, – leading to another expenses.

Of course, some use it as opportunities to play online games, thereby running down data unnecessarily. One cannot also foreclose the fact that some of the more mature or adventurous ones could use the opportunity to go on porn and other forbidden sites.

She enjoined parents to endeavour to get their children phones that are not expensive, and connect such phones to the parents’ server, so that the data can be monitored.

“Also there are softwares that can be installed on parents phones and connected to children’s to monitor their text and WhatsApp messages. Google mail opened for children must be connected to their parents’ email, so that information can be through the parents to the children’s mail to monitor their activities.

Finally, parents should always collect the phones from the children after each day’s lectures. She also advised that network providers create special bundle for e-learning to reduce high cost rate of data.

For students in public schools in Lagos State, government has adopted the use of multiple media, including radio, television and the internet to reach the students. Besides, government said it has worked on a technology device loaded with the Nigerian curriculum that the students can use while at home. With this device, they will be able to continue learning, test themselves and send tests to their teachers who will also be equipped with the device.

To kick-start the process, the state Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) has developed daily lesson programmes on radio and television for senior secondary school students as, well as interactive radio instructional programmes for primary school pupils.

The programmes, according to the Head, Public Affairs Unit, Ministry of Education, Mr. Kayode Abayomi, are to run throughout the period of the closure of schools in different subjects.

Abayomi said the idea behind it is to get public and private school students to be fully engaged while at home, adding that even if there is a challenge in power supply, they can tune in to Wazobia FM on their rechargeable radio.

“That is the more reason why we adopted the radio programme. As I am speaking with you now, my radio is on. I have a rechargeable radio; it also uses battery, so they should be able to tune in and know what is going on around them.”

He added that the ministry had already sensitised schools in Lagos, saying, “At the onset of the idea leading to the closure of schools, the Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo, did a video recording, which she sent to all schools in Lagos State. We also sent the video across all social media platforms, so that it went viral. It trended for quite some time on these platforms. The essence was to make people aware that such a programme is going on.”

To ensure that parents also key into the scheme for the benefit of their children, Abayomi said, “Wazobia FM is running the programme for us for free. As a matter of fact, they wrote a letter to the Lagos State government, stating their preparedness for partnership on the issue.