Understanding the Stance of a Nigerian Parent in a Typical Post-COVID Learning Environment

SchoolCompass industry report

The COVID-19 pandemic has created the largest disruption of education systems in history, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries and all continents. If we are to reiterate the stands of notable authorities in the education sector, one might agree that the nation’s pre-COVID education system was not sustainable as the sector is currently experiencing the drastic impact of the downturn caused by the pandemic.

With the gradual easing of nationwide lockdown due to a progressive decline in the number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria, different establishments and institutions are getting ready for ‘business as usual’.

As an all-encompassing sector in terms of impact and relevance, the education sector is one of the last to get the federal government’s approval for resumption. As industry players and key decision-makers await what is termed as the ‘post-COVID education realities‘,  SchoolsCompass, an online school discovery platform proactively took the initiative to ascertain the non-health impact of COVID-19 on Nigerian schools. 

As a tech-driven organization, SchoolsCompass is established to assist parents in aligning with an ideal school(s) for their wards by giving them access to relevant information about different schools all in one platform.

The organization conducted a survey utilizing the vast database on its platform to reach targeted Nigeria’s education stakeholders and decision-makers to determine the Nation’s post-COVID learning expectations.

From the organization’s findings, about 39.9% of Nigerian parents can afford tuition fees upon school resumption. The research which involved respondents from the six geo-political zones in the country supports active parent’s inclusivity in every child’s education.

The report offers school owners and stakeholders an in-depth insight into the expectations of the post-COVID learning environment while detailing factors that led to these prospects.

“About 48.3% of the respondents can only afford tuition fees if school owners would allow installment payment while 39.9% are sure they can still afford school fees amidst financial decline. Also, 9.3% noted that they would seek a more affordable school for their wards while 0.7% operate on a prepaid tuition fee strategy. About 1.8% of the respondents were quite certain that they would not be able to afford tuition fees thus facing post-COVID realities for their wards might be quite disheartening”

On income loss as a result of the pandemic, the report shows that 67% of  the research participants experienced a significant decline in their earnings as a result of the pandemic while 33% noted that they did not experience any financial decline whatsoever as a result of the pandemic

Although a foreseen occurrence, most Nigerian schools did not anticipate the need for virtual learning to be immediate thus the great level of unpreparedness. SchoolsCompass report stated that some parents and school owners provided e-learning platforms for students, some at a little or no cost while others retained the regular fee for in-class tuition.

“41.1% of Nigerian parents who participated in the survey noted that their children’s schools provided subsidized online classes for their wards. 40.8% of the respondents did not have their children/ students engage in any online classes from their schools while 17% had their wards learn online at no cost from their schools”

“SchoolsCompass insights discovered that even with the pandemic, about 22.7% of the respondents’ homeschooled (offline) their wards during the lockdown. About 45% of the online learning process was provided by the school management to further engage the students. Some parents (6.7%) engaged the services of home tutors for their children in addition to the online learning provided by schools while some parents (8.9%) patronized third-party IT companies for online learning services for children”

“Insights from the report show that about 47% of the respondents paid N10,000 or less for online tuition per month during the lockdown period while 38% online tuition charges range from N11,000 to N25,000. Findings depict that as the charges increase, parents’ engagement possibility decreases. According to education experts on twitter, most Nigerian parents believe that they were the ones doing the bulk of the learning process as they most times leave their work to attend to their wards”

As the majority of Nigerian parents await school resumption, The Nation reports that it is not entirely new to see parents ask for an assurance from their wards key education decision-makers on measures to be taken upon resumption to curb the spread of COVID-19.

“The report findings still show that about 11.7% of the parents would rather wait for six months before allowing their children to resume. Although a greater percentage of the respondents’ (61.6%) would willingly let their wards resume in about one week after the resumption, there is still 18.5% of the respondents who are not sure if they would allow their kids back to school”

“About 87% of the respondents noted that schools adopting post-COVID preventive measures by the government would highly propel their acceptance of taking their wards back to school. About 6% of the respondents would like that every class is provided with a minder to manage physical interactions and thus curb the spread”

Although the impact of the COVID-19 has been unprecedented, SchoolsCompass believes that it is a major responsibility of all the industry stakeholders and decision-makers to ensure that learners regain their future once again.

Download the full report –  FULL COVID-19 REPORT 2020 

The organisation’s findings revealed that the pandemic encouraged the need for schools to utilise technology in learning; in a post-COVID learning environment, school owners and key decision-makers must involve parents throughout the learning process for the way forward for education.