With the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic becoming more evident across the world, Act Hub Africa has held its signature programme, ‘The Policy Dialogue’, focusing on combating the effect of the virus on education in Nigeria.
Development Diaries gathered that the dialogue was organised to discuss issues concerning the increasing gap in education between urban and rural dwellers and how the government can creatively reduce this gap through ICT and alternative energy in hard-to-reach communities.
The group, which shared a communique signed by Act Hub Africa’s Team Lead, John Oluwafemi, said it believed the increasing access to power, which has been taken for granted for a very longtime, will continue to be the major factor that will be increasing the gap in education between ‘the haves and the have nots’.
With quality education being one of the global goals designed to help entrench quality education for all, and access to reliable and affordable power also being fundamental to the attainment of sustainable development goals (SDGs), Act Hub Africa, during its dialogue, offered some recommendations to help combat the effects of Covid-19 on education.
The group recommended the design of a central database where curricula and content of subjects are uploaded for multiple nodes to access.
It also advised the government to create a mobile service where technology can be taught in a mobile and open-space situation to help solve the problem of the digital gap between rural and urban populations.
Furthermore, the group said that big screens should be made available to each community, with connectivity to the main database, to cover the hard-to-reach areas with the help of well-designed network which may not necessarily be the internet.
The group also suggested the provision of alternative energy that can power innovative education such as wind energy, hydro-energy, and solar energy.
Act Hub Africa is a non-governmental organisation that provides an overview of existent projects and their impact on the environment in host communities in Nigeria.
Source: Act Hub Africa
Photo source: Marco Verch
