COVID-19: Redesign education curriculum, invest in teachers, stakeholders tell FG

By Elizabeth Osayande

Stakeholders in the education sector have said the right time to redesign the nation’s education curriculum was now, owing to the shift in virtually all facets of life due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

They took the position at the presentation of awards to winners of Teachers’ Appreciation Programme (Best Virtual Class Teach for Change, TFC 2020) organised by the Julienne School Support Foundation, held via Zoom in Lagos.

According to them, it was high time stakeholders at the state and the federal government invested more in teachers’ capacity and training to meet the realities of the new normal.

Speaking at the event, the President/Founder, Julienne School Support Foundation, Juliana Ogundumu, said: “Owing to the new normal caused by COVID-19, there is an urgency to redesign our curriculum and create an enabling environment for teachers’ professional development and automatic implementation of digital technology for effective teaching.

“This is because we are living in a world that is changing rapidly and we need to move with the global changes.”

On the role on innovation, Ogundumu reiterated that all stakeholders, including students and teachers, must play a pivotal role in advancing education in the country.

Her words: “Students across the globe are future co-workers and competitors. We need to make every child valued.

“While we are waiting for the government to improve education performance in our country, you will agree with me that collaboratively, we can achieve a lot.

“Again as school owners, we need to invest more in teachers. This will have an overall effect on the performance of the students. Teachers should be ready to meet up with any disruption that may occur in the future.”

Besides education curriculum, Ogundumu also explained that TFC conference was launched in 2019 to create awareness and build capacity for teachers on how they can leverage on technology to meet up with the challenges of the 21st Century.

On his part, a lecturer and management consultant, Department of Educational Management, Faculty of Education, University of Lagos, UNILAG, Dr. Jacob Adeyanju, guest at the TFC award ceremony, said that schools should be dynamic in their pursuit for meaningful changes.