Dr Sabina Kyahar, Head of Department, Special Education, Federal College of Education (FCE), Pankshin, Plateau, has commended the Federal Government for its rapid and positive response in curbing and mitigating the shocks and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on education in the country.
Kyahar made the commendation on Wednesday in a key note address at the 7th National Conference of College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), held at the College of Education, Gindiri, Plateau.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme conference is “Education, Development and the Challenges of COVID-19 Pandemic: the way forward” and featured several goodwill messages from various stakeholders.
She said that in spite of the horrific emergence of the pandemic which dealt serious blow on the global economy, the federal government rose to the occasion and weathered the storm especially through online and e-learning.
“The massive efforts made by our government in such a short time in responding to the pandemic’s shock and effects on the education system goes to show that change is possible.
“We should jointly seize the opportunity to find new ways to address the learning challenges and bring about a set of solutions previously difficult or impossible to implement,’ she said.
According to the lecturer, “education is the blood that drives and sustains development, the teacher and the learner to keep the nation moving forward in healthy state and level in the global stage.
She said for the fact that COVID-19 pandemic had created the largest disruption of education in history, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries in the world, Nigerians should be strong in idea collection to curtail its devastating effects.
The Chairman of the occasion and Plateau Commissioner for Environment, Mr Idi Yakubu-Usman, commended the organisers of the conference, and described the theme as “apt” and “timely” given the struggles nations were making in overcoming the pandemic.
Yakubu-Usman described Coronavirus as the “greatest World Changer” which in less than a year vaccines were quickly developed to tackle it and slow down its destructive capabilities seen in the loss of lives across the globe.
“We must learn as humans irrespective of the challenges the virus poses to education and learning. We must damn the consequences and find solutions on how to move forward with learning and development,” he said.
The Provost, College of Education, Gindiri, Mr Emmanuel Jurte, challenged the participants of the conference to wisely discuss and proffer solutions to the challenges COVID-19 pandemic posed to education in Nigeria.
Jurte expressed delight that online technology opened to Nigeria and Nigerians the opportunity to learn at distances and keeping with the contributions toward the development of the Nation.
In her welcome address, the COEASU Chairman, College of Education, Gindiri branch, Mrs Esther Pambot, said that the conference had opened opportunity and avenue for stakeholders in the education sector to share ideas on how to move forward educationally irrespective of the challenges posed by the pandemic.
Panbot expressed hope that at the end of the conference, education in Nigeria would receive a boost on ways and means to transform the education sector for desired growth and development of the nation. (NAN)
