Faruk, N

2 Publications in AERD

Author Publications

ICT enabled Almajiri education in Nigeria: Challenges and prospects

By Fahm, AO

The Almajiri children in Nigeria are deserving of special interventions to reduce the life-long divide in educational achievement, social status, and economic empowerment. One way of speedily achieving this is through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). This study examined the prospects and challenges of using ICT in the teaching and learning processes of Almajiri children's education in Nigeria. A descriptive research methodology was adopted and data were collected from the Almajiri children, their teachers, and parents from communities with a high concentration of Almajiri schools. The results showed that while the official language of instruction in schools in Nigeria is English, the language often spoken by children and teachers was Hausa. Also, while teachers and parents were quite familiar with ICTs such as mobile phones, computers, and television, the Almajiri children were more familiar with television and mobile phones, and very few had used a computer. Some strategies proposed for successful adoption of ICT in Almajiri education include the use of indigenous languages in courseware development and the use of one-to-many ICT facilities, such as multimedia teaching aids, projectors, and smart televisions.

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COVID-19 lockdown and remote attendance teaching in developing countries: A review of some online pedagogical resources

By Oloyede, AA

The Corona Virus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively impacted teaching and learning globally, imposing widespread closure of schools from the elementary to tertiary levels. As of 14 April 2020, teaching activities of over 1.75 billion students globally were disrupted in about 200 countries that have implemented full or partial lockdown across the world. At the time of writing, the duration of the current pandemic cannot be ascertained. Therefore, the teaching and learning process should also adapt to the new normal, which includes suitable social distancing, self-isolation and other disruptive guidelines outlined by the World Health Organization. Thus, more than ever, COVID-19 has now emphasized the necessity to embrace different and flexible methods of teaching and, by extension, learning. Therefore, e-teaching and e-learning have emerged as complementary solutions that reduce disruption to educational activities. Despite having a solution in online teaching to reduce the effect of COVID-19 on education, it's noteworthy that the solution is not available to every educator, learner and school, especially in developing countries. In developing countries, especially across Africa, lack of awareness of the existing online teaching resources and their suitability for remote attendance teaching and lack of skill sets required for using the resources are the issues impeding online teaching. This paper reviews and evaluates twenty-two (22) remote attendance teaching resources, their special features and system requirements. The technical requirements, suitability, and limitations of each application are considered. The implementation challenges of using the resources are discussed, and some solutions are recommended.

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