The e-learning experiment

The programme will commence with a pilot scheme in which approximately 5,000 students in the final year of secondary school preparing for certificate examinations have been enrolled. While innovations to arrest the falling standard of education in the country should be encouraged, this should be applied with caution. It is doubtful whether there is any […]

The programme will commence with a pilot scheme in which approximately 5,000 students in the final year of secondary school preparing for certificate examinations have been enrolled. While innovations to arrest the falling standard of education in the country should be encouraged, this should be applied with caution. It is doubtful whether there is any other country where such social media platforms form part of the school curriculum.  
One of the biggest challenges of the initiative is the implicit assumption that young people’s interest in social media can easily be diverted to learning. There is as yet no evidence to suggest that the Internet has made students perform better in academic terms. E-learning platforms cannot replace the need to have functional and well equipped public and school libraries.  Conclusion from many reported cases is that the parlous financial circumstances of most students in government secondary schools limit their ability to purchase tools, such as textbooks. A better option would be for the state government to provide freely accessible wireless internet connectivity through Wi-Fi in order to make the scheme sustainable.  The scheme’s programme content is supposed to be free, but students are required to pay internet charges, which highlights another challenge. The poor internet services coupled with their exorbitant charges will only discourage the providers’ cash-strapped clients.  There is also the challenge of poor power supply. The serious obstacles encountered over the use of the much-publicized “Opon Imo” learning tablet introduced by the Osun State Government should provide some lessons.  In any case, it would have made more sense if the initiative had started with primary schools so that by the time students preparing for school leaving examination they would have become familiar with e-leaning process at later stages of the education ladder. For decades, the Internet has been available for research and teaching aids but is seldom used by students for purely academic work. The majority of teenagers may be far more computer savvy than the average adult, but most of them deploy this skill, not to advance academic learning, but to less elevating pursuits.  The e-learning programme cannot replace the need for properly trained teachers, whose terms and conditions of service need to be enhanced for them to play the crucial role required of them. Teacher training colleges should be well-funded to take in prospective students.   The importance of asking questions and receiving feedback in learning situations is central to the learning process, especially at the secondary school level. The e-learning platform can only be fully utilized when classroom teachers are trained and made familiar with the content in order for them to be in a better position to explain it in the same manner.  Furthermore, the secondary school leaving examinations will have to take into consideration the teaching methods used. The classroom environment is vitally important because the use of technology has its negative effects. For instance, since the introduction of calculators and abandoning of mental arithmetic in schools, the pupil’s inherent ability to calculate is not being tapped. These days, it is common to use a calculator for the simplest of mathematical problem. It is important therefore to recognise that a more holistic approach is needed to lift the educational standards of the less-privileged who cannot afford the expensive data bundles on their systems in order to key into the e-learning programme.