The question about how to deal with the real impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Nigeria’s education system is a million-dollar and quite a difficult one to reply due to the severe damages that have been done to the education system in any way levels.
The current curriculum may not be enough to repair the vast damages which have already been completed into the system.
There’s a need for the authorities to design a strategy and framework to support our curriculum when the world eventually ends the COVID-19 pandemic phase.
Education festivals might be a valuable instrument for supporting Nigeria’s education curriculum. A classic example of such a festival is that the Oyo State Model Education System initiatives popularly referred to as the Oyomesi festival of studying conceptualized and implemented during the government of former Governor Abiola Ajimobi.
Former Special Adviser to Ajimobi on Education issues, Dr. Bisi Akin-Alabi, a renowned and world-class instructor, technocrat, administrator and education consultant had birthed the concept which was her brainchild.
The consequences of this festival on the schooling system of Oyo State positioned Ibadan, the state capital because of learning town status by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Dr. Bisi Akin-Alabi, a graduate of the University of Lagos and a Master of Business Administration degree holder from the South Bank University Business School London, throughout her tenure as the Special Adviser to the erstwhile Governor of Oyo State on Education, Science and Technology recognized the schooling system of Oyo State was sterile, the program Wasn’t enough to support the student’s educational prerequisites and there was urgent need to decode the system.
She developed the Oyomesi festival of learning to encourage learning and teaching. The festival was tremendously productive and repositioned the schooling system of the South Western state.
This kind of intervention may be useful in repositioning the educational system in the post-COVID-19 age if employed across several nations in Nigeria.
No wonder, the concept implementor, Dr. Bisi Akin-Alabi who’s taught mathematics and science at a mainstream college in the United Kingdom for over 20 decades, is the creator of SchoolRun, an education and training consultancy company that primarily focused on achieving excellence via instruction and development of quality opportunities for the country’s tool.
Nigeria sure needs these unique thoughts like the schooling festivals to reposition the education sector and reunite the lost glory.
As an increasing number of children of school age are dropping out of schools around Nigeria, there is the need to detain the trend since the country might find it hard to cope with a large number of illiterate people in the future coupled with the fact that an idle hand would be the devil’s workshop.
Hence, the idea of schooling festival if well executed may just be the magic wand required to return many to school and keep them there for proper education.
