Coronavirus: Group launches project to aid online education for students

A group of young people, under the auspices of ‘Teen Team’, have launched a project to aid online learning for secondary students in Nigeria during the coronavirus pandemic.

The project tagged ‘COVID-19 Secondary School Students’ Response Program’ is aimed at keeping thousands of students in school through a virtual learning platform that will enable them to have access to education from their various homes, conveniently.

The project also proposed to offer the students with mind-blowing opportunities including mentorship provision, career development, skill acquisition and exposure to global opportunities amongst many others.

Furthermore, the project will involve sensitising young people on how to maximise the period of COVID-19 and post for sustainable growth. Also, provisions will be made to students who have no access to internet facilities in order to carry them along.

Speaking to the Founder of Teen Team, Samuel Ajala, he explains that the group aims to make education accessible to students at secondary level through a virtual platform.

“We are interested in addressing the problem of lack of access to education for secondary students during this period because it has made a lot of students become unschooled, which is quite detrimental to the sustainable development goal of quality education.”

“Through the COVID-19 Secondary School Students Response Program’ we will be able to keep thousands of students in school during this pandemic through a virtual learning platform that has commenced and we are hoping to launch a radio program as soon as we get funds.”

“With the virtual learning project ongoing, we have been able to reach at least over 500 students across Nigeria as beneficiaries of the project. We have 50 volunteers assisting us in executing this project.”

“Our goal is to reach out to over 10,000 students in Nigeria through this project. To join the class send a message to 09090843794 declaring your interest,” he added.

While speaking to this reporter, Sanusi Yahya, a student who also doubles as a  volunteer from Lagos said he joined the project to mitigate the effect of COVID-19 on the education sector.

“I volunteered to help reduce the effect of Covid-19 on the education system and I have been able to influence the approach of students to [identify] key points when reading.”

Another volunteer who identified himself as Idiovo Oghenerukevwe from Delta state said he volunteered because of his passion for teaching children.

“I love to teach kids a lot, guiding them to whatever way they want to. I have been doing it for seven years now and it seems I have a way to talk to kids and get them motivated.”

A beneficiary of the project, Bello Hikmot, who is in SSS3 from Abeokuta Grammar School said, so far, the project has helped her to understand the rules of concord.

“I didn’t understand the rules of concord before, so with the help of this group I was able to understand.”

Another student named Emmanuel Emeka from Access Point School, Ebute-Metta, said: “I just joined but it has been good so far.”

Recall that as a result of the outbreak of coronavirus in Nigeria, the government ordered the closure of private and public educational institutions in the country.

This act has left millions of secondary school students unschooled and without access to education.

In the world, 1.57 billion children and youth – 90% of the world’s student population are out of school according to Education for Global Development.

According to UNESCO, disruptions to instructional time in the classroom can have a severe impact on a child’s ability to learn.

“The longer marginalized children are out of school, the less likely they are to return. Being out of school also increases the risk of teenage pregnancy, sexual exploitation, child marriage, violence and other threats.”

“Further, prolonged closures disrupt essential school-based services such as immunization, school feeding, and mental health and psychosocial support, and can cause stress and anxiety due to the loss of peer interaction and disrupted routines.”