Why Kaduna needs e-Learning Policy – FHANI

By Uangbaoje Alex, Kaduna

Family Health Advocacy in Nigeria, (FHANI), has said; following the increasing rate of displacement of families in various communities as result of insecurity and other forms of disasters in Kaduna State, it has become imperative for the state government to embrace e-learning system.

Ag Secretary of FHANI, Benjamin Maigari, while making a presentation on the situation of out-of-school children in the state, revealed that over 500,000 children were recorded to be out of school in just four Local Government Areas, occasioned by insecurity, according to data released by the Universal Basic Education (UBE), in 2020.

Maigari, who said this at a two-day Capacity Building Training for Social Media Influencers and Journalists in Kaduna, supported by Rise Up, added that the situation was as a result of displacement of the children and their parents by bandits and terrorists, noting that girls are more affected because they constitute 74% of the figure.

He noted that the provision of e-learning in schools will improve enrolment, retention and learning outcomes.

e-Learning is the process of sharing knowledge through various modern channels, such as radio, television, and the Internet, specifically delivered everywhere other than the traditional classroom where the teacher is teaching, which gives students the liberty to learn in the comfort of their zone.

According to him, “a report released in 2020 by the Universal Basic Education Personnel Audit on Kaduna State, disclosed that there were over 500,000 out of school children in the state mainly due to insecurity most of which are found in Kajuru, Chikun, Igabi, Giwa and Birnin Gwari local government areas.

“Out of the 2,425,560 children between the ages of 10 18 years, an estimated number of 524,670 are out of school. 68% of which are girls. In 2020, the Kaduna State government had threatened parents to send their children to school or risk going to jail. However, schools in the state have become largely unsafe due to series of attacks by bandits and terrorists.

“Kaduna state of recent has been faced with all forms of insecurity mainly banditry and kidnapping, This situation has discouraged parents to send their children to school and has affected giris education.

“Kaduna state has no policy on e-learning. According to current data from Kaduna state annual security report of accountability and transparency 2021, 74 per cent of girls affected by insecurity and their communities displaced drop out of schools and just 20 per cent transit to other schools in different secured location.

Program Officer of FHANI, Grace Maikano, said the State Government, need to speed up the domestication of the e-learning policy which was already enacted by the Federal Government.

She noted that apart from improving learning outcomes, the policy will revolutionalized the conventional method of chalk and board style of learning imparted to the students.

“Based on the data we have, these out of school children are either at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps or they are at home and their parents are scared of sending them to school because of the fear of insecurity.

“We really wish that before this government leave office in May, they gets the unit formed and domesticate e-learning policy here in kaduna so that all the works we have done so far will be sustained”