COVID-19 has exacerbated a long-standing education crisis in many African countries, where millions of children were already out of school before the pandemic.
Nigeria has the highest proportion of children not in school, low literacy rates, and high levels of inequality between and within groups in terms of access to education and learning outcomes. The pandemic further reduced school attendance by approximately 17%, particularly among adolescents aged 15 to 18, according to a working paper by Dessy et al. For many school-age children, temporary school closures have become permanent.
Meanwhile, evidence suggests an average learning loss of around half a year across the country. In other African countries for which data is available, the learning loss ranges from eight months (South Africa) to two years (Uganda).
New thinking and innovations are needed to rebuild Nigeria’s education system. Based on our research and experience in the sector, we have identified five ways in which Nigeria’s education sector can achieve an inclusive recovery from the pandemic:
1) Prioritise equity
The pandemic has disproportionately affected the most marginalised groups, and many are at risk of long-term exclusion. Many children who are no longer attending school come from poorer backgrounds and live in rural or remote areas. Technology designed to mitigate learning loss during the pandemic was often inaccessible to rural communities due to a lack of electricity or internet connectivity, as well as other financial or logistical constraints.
It is vital to prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable children, as they are likely to require the greatest investment to make up for learning losses. At a time when public budgets are under strain, a resource-efficient way to achieve this is to work in partnership with grassroots organisations that support the most vulnerable communities at a local level.
2) Develop a data-driven education system
Data for performance monitoring and evidence-based research was crucial to Nigeria’s policy response during the COVID-19 pandemic. School closures, remote learning programmes and the reopening of schools were all guided by evidence. Most studies that tracked the impact of COVID-19-induced school closures found moderate to high levels of learning loss, depending on socio-economic background and context.
Rapid learning assessments in classrooms and at regional levels can help gauge the extent and nature of COVID-induced learning loss. Remedial and reorientation programmes are more effective when designed with a clear understanding of learning gaps. COVID-19 has shown us just how important it is to have a learning assessment system; tools such as learning pathways and surveys of the curriculum as implemented Those that equip teachers to turn learning assessments into practical classroom activities will also be crucial.
3) Align the curriculum with foundational learning
The education system in Nigeria, like that in most developing countries, tends towards an age-grade system centred on the completion of a class or curriculum rather than the acquisition of knowledge. This creates a mismatch between the curriculum and actual skills, leading to longer schooling but less learning. Reforms such as “Teaching at the Right Level” (TARL), which have been widely implemented in countries such as India and Kenya, have sought to address these issues through a new system and a slower, learning-centred curriculum. Whilst it is still in its early stages in Nigeria, the uptake and its impact on the education system have been limited.
The disruption to schooling caused by COVID-19 presents an opportunity to accelerate learning recovery and ensure that the curriculum is aligned with classroom practices and assessments. The education system should place greater emphasis on the development of foundational skills, ensuring that children acquire the basic numeracy and literacy skills that form the building blocks for a lifetime of learning. Furthermore, the post-COVID-19 education system needs to be better prepared for shocks and to be technology-driven.
4) Increase support for the education workforce
The education workforce was affected by low morale and income shocks caused by COVID-19. The recovery of the education sector should include targeted social protection for the education workforce and parents. For parents, this includes maintaining the school feeding programme, providing subsidies for school materials such as uniforms and textbooks, and providing income support for low-income households by expanding access to credit markets. For the education workforce, it is crucial to provide retraining that equips them to transition and adapt to the hybrid learning environment that COVID-19 has brought about. The exchange of ideas on local innovations to address learning loss will also be important. Globally, countries have been exploring ways to recover from the effects of the pandemic, and the education workforce in Nigeria needs to be made aware of what works, where and why. This can create the knowledge base needed to replicate and scale up innovation.
5) Develop context-specific solutions
Nigeria’s education system is diverse, and what works in one state or region may not work in others. For example, evidence suggests that whilst there are still significant gender inequalities in access to education in Nigeria’s northern states, many southern states have achieved gender parity in this area. Investing in, evaluating and learning from grassroots initiatives is important for understanding context-specific challenges.
In a country estimated to be losing 7 to 13 % of its GDP due to low human capital development, we cannot overemphasise the role of education as the foundation for achieving other Sustainable Development Goals. Focusing on these five dimensions will ensure that the approaches to ‘building back better’ result in an outcomes-driven, learning-focused and equitable education system in Nigeria.
This article was originally published by the OECD Development Matters blog and forms part of a collaborative article with Southern Voice.
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