Challenges and Prospects of Covid-19 Pandemic for Education in Africa

Abstract

This paper explores the consequences posed, in education, by the adoption of Covid-19 containment measures such as digitization of educational instruction to enable social distancing. It outlines the underlying assumptions in the implementation of online learning, and suggests possible remedies in form of recommendations for future actions. The papers observes that Covid-19 pandemic and its containment measures has affected every aspect of life by providing us a whole new experience in socializing with each other and how we generally conduct our affaires in society. The effect of the pandemic has greatly affected the socio-economic sphere, and the education sector has been worse hit. To counter rapid spread of the virus in educational institutions, closure became the immediate response with most countries adopting online teaching and learning as a means for mitigating the challenges that can be posed to learning when learners are detached from the face-to-face process for long period. The adoption of remote learning for most institutions was largely informed by the decisions reached by individual country experts in pursuant of health guideline of social distancing by the World Health Organization. However, the unforeseen consequences of the containment measures may linger on for many years to come. Thus, this Paper raises our consciousness to the resultant situation in education and proposes remedies for action. The paper is largely based on recent library research, but also utilizes actual instances to contextualize the issues raised, with the aim of drawing practical implications for both education research and policy.