By Felix Khanoba
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), says plans are underway to turn event centres in the institution to emergency classrooms to guard against the spread of COVID-19.
Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Charles Igwe, said the move would ensure that combined lectures involving large numbers of students would hold without violating COVID-19 safety protocol.
Prof. Igwe stated this on Thursday in Nsukka, during a virtual dialogue series organised by the Alliance for African Partnership (AAP), a consortium of African universities and Michigan State University dedicated to promoting partnership among African universities.
He said the University has also designed a system that makes provision for the usual classroom lectures and e-learning system.
Prof. Igwe said the mixed method of teaching will commence when students return to campus after the COVID-19 lockdown.
The VC, who spoke on the topic: ‘Global and Continental Partnerships and Collaboration in Higher Education Post COVID-19’, during the virtual dialogue, posited that the mixed teaching method would help to decongest classrooms and make it easy for students to adhere to social distance safety rules.
He said the University was already into partnership with some telecommunication companies towards ensuring the success of the planned e-learning method.
He said the University would fully utilise the partnership with the telecommunication firms to improve the bandwidth allocated to the institution and data access for the students.
On the University’s contribution to the battle against the dreaded COVID-19, the VC said UNN has produced hand sanitizers, face masks and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for frontline clinicians, adding that there were many ongoing research interventions from the University which would help broaden the understanding of COVID-19 and its impact on the society.
