AISEN seeks to bridge Nigeria’s education gap

The Association of International School Educators of Nigeria (AISEN) in its 2022 Speaker series themed ‘Bridging the Gap’ held on Thursday, February 24 sought ways to bridge the gap before the education system collapses.

Abiola Lamikanra, in her opening speech, lamented the growing gap in the education sector which calls for immediate action from both the government and private sectors.

Folasade Adefisayo, the commissioner of education in Lagos State has revealed how the ministry is using employability skill strategy to reduce the widening gap in the education sector.

Adefisayo speaking on the AISEN’s programme explained that in bridging the gap in the education sector Lagos State has embraced so many strategies among which are the broadcast education series and improving the teachers’ delivery quality.

“So many negative things happened to our students during the Covid-19 pandemic era, besides, the closing of schools which affected learning, many of the female students were found pregnant as a result of the lockdown, while other ones did not return to classes after the pandemic for one reason or the other,” she said.

According to the commissioner, “The first task before the ministry was how to bring these students back to the right frame of mind to learning. And this the ministry did through bringing technology into teaching and learning via online lessons.”

However, she disclosed that the state government discovered to its surprise that many parents could not access the lessons online for economic reasons. And because of this situation, the commissioner said the state decided to introduce WhatsApps teaching and learning approach.

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Besides, she noted that the ministry adopted the drill approach to reach those who could not come back to schools. While those who have to work were introduced into skill acquisition teaching by bringing to bear the comprehensive schools to groom them.

Quality of teachers’ delivery is another approach the state adopted according to Adefisayo in its quest to bridge the gap.

“We have to train the teachers, improving their coaching and mentoring skills,” she noted.

Odunayo Sanya, the executive secretary of MTN Foundation disclosed that one of the avenues the foundation is using to help bridge the gap in the education sector is by making available data to students at various public tertiary institutions.