FUTURE OF EDUCATION POST-COVID

The Covid19 pandemic has caused a lot of disruptions in different sectors of endeavors and the education sector is not left out. The disruptions have ushered in a new normal and have launched the sector into the future. The truth is that parents, learners, and educators will never meet school as they knew it before Covid-19. This will be seen in the medium of education, the content of the curriculum, the roles of teachers as well as teaching strategies. The fact that the Covid-19 pandemic forced a lot of schools to communicate and engage their learners online by creating online content with the use of available tech tools is indicative of the fact that educators need to rethink what education is and how to educate.

Therefore, with the above, let us examine what the future of education post-Covid-19 will look like so that one will be equipped and armed to navigate, flourish, thrive, and remain relevant in the sector as an educator, a learner, a parent, or even a stakeholder in education.

First, the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown have redefined the meaning of education. It has shown that learners do not need to be in a physical classroom or lecture hall for learning to take place. Due to this, post Covid-19 education will experience more learning beyond the walls of a classroom where blended learning, flipped classroom and remote teaching will replace learning as we knew it which involved mostly the physical presence of teachers and learners in the classroom. This form of education will not be done outside the use of technology. As a result of this, it becomes important that the education sector embraces technology because the generations of learners we have are digital natives who have their lives embedded in technology. These learners are able to access knowledge through a few clicks on their phones, tablets, and laptops. Therefore, educators will be flipping their classroom, blending their teaching and at the higher level, remote learning will be more intense and all these would be done through the use of synchronous and asynchronous digital platforms available.

The above means that online teaching and home-schooling have come to stay. A lot of school owners who were skeptical about how this will happen are currently embracing the available digital platforms to engage their learners. Some parents who are skeptical about releasing their wards should government reopen schools are therefore gravitating towards homeschooling their wards and embracing online teaching. Already, teachers are engaging learners via video-conferencing (done on Zoom, Meetgoogle, Skype) and other platforms like Google classroom, telegram, Edmodo, Flipgrid, Screencastify (that allows one to record his/her teaching), and even WhatsApp. Many online schools and freelancers have emerged as a result of the need to engage students during the lock-down. Some private universities continued their semester and even conducted exams online for their students. All these show that the future of education is here and there is no going back to an “old normal”. In Africa, digital learning has arrived. Therefore, educators, learners, the government, and parents should be prepared via training to grasp this new normal as regards education.

In addition to embedding technology, the post-Covid-19 future of education will witness a revising of the content of the curriculum in order to cater to the needs of the learners so that they will be more equipped to stay relevant in their future. Relevant skills will need to be added to the content of the curriculum like digital skills, creativity, financial literacy, communication and collaboration, artificial and emotional intelligence, and especially, how to identify cyberbullies so that learners can be safe in the online space. Since the pandemic has ushered the world into new realities, it becomes paramount that the curriculum should be revised as the curriculum pre-Covid19 pandemic has become obsolete. Since education should equip one with the skills, knowledge, and experience for the sake of significance, education post-covid-19 will witness a revisit if not a total overhaul in order to achieve this.

The above means that certain subjects will be removed or integrated into others and new subjects will be introduced. Topics also will be revisited, removed and new topics introduced. Take for example English Language, students at the secondary level in Nigeria should be taught how to write emails, invitation, how to write CVs, how to answer a phone call, etc. Also, games will be introduced as a relevant subject in post-Covid19 education especially online games and this will help to improve the mental alertness and skills of the learners. All these will make learners see the significance of their learning and therefore commission them for relevance.

Also, as a result of the changes in the content and medium of learning in post-Covid19 education, the role of teachers and educators will change from learning instructors to learning facilitators where their roles are more of mentors and coaches who scaffold learners to discover their own learning. This also means that post-Covid19 educators and teachers will need to be more tech-savvy and understand how to use digital tools to navigate effectively the medium of teaching that will be used. Any teacher who fails to acquire the necessary digital skill will lose relevance, become obsolete, and will be replaced.

Digital libraries, electronic books, and textbooks will replace the physical ones. Already, the government has said that if they must re-open schools in Nigeria, that there will be minimal use of physical books by students and educators. This pinpoints the fact that Post-Covid19 education will experience the exodus of physical books and libraries.

Furthermore, the future of education especially in Africa will become more learner-centered than teacher-centered. The education sector will witness learners being more responsible for their own learning especially because teachers’ roles will be redefined. Learners especially those in high schools and universities will choose what they want to learn and how they want to learn. This will force teachers to innovatively create more engaging content for learners.

Another thing that will become a norm in post-Covid19 education is that learners will minimize writing with a pen and pencils. This will be as a result of the fact that learning will be embedded in technology. Also, the duration of hours learners spends learning will reduce and become flexible. This will be in a way to minimize the hazards of constant eyes on the screen for a long period of time. Pre-Covid19 education witnessed learners staying in school from 8:00 am-2:00 pm or even 4:00 pm in some cases but, this will change.

In post-Covid19 education, learners will learn more because they can easily access more knowledge on any topic, enjoy virtual realities, have access to the videos which they can play over time, and practice what they learn. Also, learners will have time to discover themselves, learn new skills, and do more meaningful things with their time if monitored closely.

Again, the future of education post-Covid19 will experience a lot of collaboration. This collaboration will happen among educators, between schools, between philanthropists, and the government. As education post-Covid19 will be more ingrained in technology, there will be a need for digital tools and devices which the government alone cannot provide. Hence, the private sector and philanthropists will need to collaborate with schools and the government to make available these tools and devices for the benefit of the learners and educators. Teachers will collaborate with their colleagues for the benefit of the learner also. Parents will need to cooperate with teachers and help with the monitoring of the learners at home to ensure that learning is taking place as it should. Teachers will also need to give meaningful and prompt feedback to parents in order to achieve this purpose.

In conclusion, change is the only thing constant and most often, events usher in changes. The change also causes a lot of disruptions and interruptions but the moment we embrace it, it becomes easier to adapt. A parent said to me recently that we should pray for the pandemic to disappear so that we will all return to school and continue from where we stopped. I smiled because the truth is that there won’t be “business as usual’ and the earlier all stakeholders in education understand this and make the necessary adjustments, the better for all involved.

Finally, the shift to digital and online teaching has arrived. The change has happened. The new normal is here. The future has opened the gate. It is important that we are not left behind.

Written by

Mbaegbu, Amaka Victory

(the360degreesteacher)

08170819022

Mbaegbuchiamaka006@gmail.com