From Maurice Okafor, Enugu
A US-based Nigerian Professor of International law and Global Politics, Professor Jehu Nnaji, has called on the concerned authorities of arm of government to introduce electronic learning for all classes of students and pupils in Nigeria so that the children can resume their studies.
Professor Nnaji gave this advice against the backdrop of federal government’s directive that the scheduled external exams for final year pupils/students like common entrance, Junior secondary(JSS3) SS3,NECO etc as proposed by WAEC management board will not hold in Nigeria in view of the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, last week told state house correspondents that the Nigerian government would not mind letting the pupils and students losing one academic calendar, instead of re-opening schools to expose them to the risk of contracting corona virus.
Speaking to news men in Enugu, Professor Nnaji said the decision is not the best for Nigerian children because nobody can guarantee when the spread of corona virus disease will be curtailed to enable the conventional school system start again.
He asserted that if the disease have come to stay, just as Malaria, typhoid fever etc, there’s nothing anybody will do about it, and that normal life processes must go on, while people adopt all safety rules to stay away from its contact and spread.
He questioned, “How long are the children going to stay at home, doing nothing and wasting their future. The best option is for the government at all levels to change over to electronic system of learning. That is the growing trend in civilised countries.”
Through e-learning every child will learn from home. I know it is going to be expensive but the government should bear the cost of providing the electronic gadgets that would be used in all schools to facilitate the process; whereas the gadgets will be sold at cheap rates in super markets to students and pupils.”
Prof Nnaji asserted that how to use electronic gadgets to learn will not be a problem for children of very tender age in nursery classes, stating most of them are already used to toys.
Therefore, their own gadgets will be manufactured in the form of toys.
Professor Nnaji who is a visiting scholar of Kansas university law school USA, but has remained in Nigeria since the outbreak of corona virus disease, disclosed that he conducts his classes from Nigeria through e-learning and conferencing.
