General News
MRS Confidence Okonkwo, an early childhood advocate on Thursday called for teachers support in the management of stress to handle the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Okonkwo, a staff of the Federal Ministry of Education made this known in Bauchi at the ongoing Cluster Mobilisation and Sensitisation Meetings on COVID-19 Protocol, Surveillance, and Safe School Reopening Readiness.
The program was organized by the ministry of education with support from the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).
According to her, the pandemic has changed a lot of activities in the education sector and students are the most hit as learning has been interrupted.
She said that since lessons were lost, there was a need for adequate training of the teachers, especially in the area of using technology to recoup the lessons lost.
Okonkwo said that continued learning through alternate home-based platforms was also necessary to place the students on the same page.
“We need to give teachers supports for their protection and wellbeing. We need to support them in the management of stress because of the challenges, workload at home, and workload in the school.
“With the coming of COVID-19, a lot of children were at home and some were able to get access to learning through the internet and other facilities available at that time.
“It is important to support the teachers in the new area that COVID-19 brought, especially in the area of using technology for e-learning classes. We also need to organize training on how to manage stress.
“We still need to help teachers understand how to use some of these technologies and also ensure that the working conditions are conducive to motivate them to do well and manage the classroom well,’’ she said.
Okonkwo said that the schools’ database should be strengthened to allow for adequate care of students with physical challenges.
She said that the database would facilitate the fundamental development of the children emotionally, socially, physically, educationally and otherwise.
“The database is to ensure the physical fitness of the children and available in every school.
“The school will know whether the child has any ailment before the enrollment.
“For example, you need to know if the child is asthmatic and the record of that child will help if a situation arises where the child is having difficulties.
“It will also help the school to know what to do immediately and that will also guide them in the management of COVID-19 cases in the school,’’ she said.
Okonkwo, therefore, called on stakeholders in the sector on the need to give students a protective environment to ensure that all COVID-19 protocol facilities were provided for all schools irrespective of their locations.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a grant of 15 million dollars COVID-19 response was given to Nigeria by the GPE to curtail the spread of COVID-19 in schools.
The programme was to train the School-Based Management Committee (SBMC), Principals, Teachers and other stakeholders on COVID-19 management who will in turn cascade such training to their various environments. (NAN)
– Apr. 01, 2021 @ 13:32 GMT
Tags: COVID-19: Teachers need support to handle crisis – expert
