The Impact of Education on Curbing the Spread of Corona Virus

The outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic also known as COVID-19 in Wuhan, the ground Zero of the virus and the Capital City of Hubei Province in the Republic of China on September 2019 and that which later spread to other parts of the world, has affected the entire world populace and businesses (Kim, 2020). Most importantly, the outbreak of the pandemic has impacted negatively on schools‟ resumptions that have long been closed down in virtually all the nations of the world, including Nigeria. Following the 27th February 2020 declaration of the first case of the virus in Lagos, Nigeria by the Federal Ministry of Health, Nigerian students seem to have been made to pay the price for this global debacle, a war of bioterrorism, as alleged by the conspiracy theorists, and that which has impacted negatively on the system of education in the country.Since the commencement of the directive of the Federal government to close down schools in the country, precisely on the 19 March 2020, things have never been the same for parents and students alike (Amorighoye, 2020; EiEWG, 2020). While medical experts justified the continued closure of Nigerian schools in the face of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, some critics, analysts and scholars argued that the continued closure of schools despite the fact that markets, churches, mosques, businesses and public offices have been long reopened for businesses, has negativeimpacts on Nigerian students who are already exposed to a declined standard of education. Some have also argued that the continued closure of schools across the federation would amounts to unnecessary abuse or violation of the rights of Nigerian students to education, as well as obstructing the annual school academic calendar and truncating the expected year of entry; and delaying the promotion of students to the next level of studies and graduation from schools, colleges and universities.According to the Nigerian Education in Emergency Working Group (EiEWG, 2020) the outbreak of COVID-19 and the closure of schools in the country complicated the humanitarian, development and government partnership efforts, particularly in the North-Eastern part of the country, making it very difficult for the implementation responses to COVID-19 programmes such as funding, movements from place to place and to the IDP camps, etc. Following this complicating circumstance, the EiEWG argued that the suddenness of the crisis of COVID-19 has impacted negatively on education not only in northern Nigeria that education has been continually interrupted by insurgency of the Boko Haram, but also on other regions of the countrySeveral governmental measures have been taken to counteract the risk of disease spreading. These measures include travel restrictions, mandatory quarantines for travellers, social distancing, bans on public gatherings, schools and universities closure, business closures, self-isolation, asking people to work at home, curfews, and lockdown. Authorities in several countries worldwide have declared eitherlockdown or curfew as a measure to break the fast spread of virus infection. These measures have a negative worldwide effect on the business, education, health, and tourism. COVID-19 pandemic has affected all levels of the education system. Educational institutions around the world (in 192 countries) have either temporarily closed or implemented localized closures affecting about 1.7 billion of student population worldwide. Many universities around the world either postponed or canceled all campus activities to minimize gatherings and hence decrease the transmission of virus. However, these measures lead to higher economical, medical, and social implications on both undergraduate and postgraduate communities.The first case of COVID-19 was reported in Nigeria by the Federal Ministry of Health on 27th February, 2020. This was the case of an Italian citizen, who works in Nigeria and returned from Milan, Italy to Lagos, Nigeria on the 25th of February, 2020. Since then, the number of confirmed cases of infection keeps rising both in Nigeria and across the globe. Nigeria placed a travel ban on 13 countries with high cases of the virus, the countries are; United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, China, Spain, Netherland, Norway, Japan and Iran. On 11th March 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) declares COVID-19 a pandemic. A pandemic is a disease that has spread across a large region; for instance, multiple continents or worldwide. Over the years, humanity had fought various global health scourges which threatened to wipe human beings off the face of the earth. It is worthy to know that corona virus is different when compare with the plagues andepidemics that have ravaged humanity throughout its existence, in the sense that none has greatly affected the education of everyone in the world like COVID19. However, all these plagues and pandemics mentioned above have ravaged the globe thereby interrupting the educational processes in several ways, sometimes, it leads to closure of schools which caused serious drawbacks for learners and deprives them of their right to education and postures them to future risk. As part of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Education, through the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, on March 19th ordered the immediate closure of tertiary institutions, secondary and primary schools across the nation over the outbreak of the disease in the country.In addition to this, restriction was placed on interstates movement, market places were locked, religious gatherings of more than 10 persons were banned, social activities such as parties, ceremonies and club meetings etc. were placed on hold. All public and private schools have to shut the doors of their schools following the government directive. The pandemic has unmasked substantial inequities in the education sector. While some private schools in urban areas are engaging their students through online teaching, a large number of students who are less privileged or are in rural areas were left out. Most schools lack facilities which hindered them to partake successfully in online teaching like they do in the developed countries.