The newest coronavirus information up to date day-after-day together with coronavirus instances, the newest information, options and interviews from New Scientist and important details about the covid-19 pandemic
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WHO has acquired overwhelming pro-bono help from technology firms to struggle the COVID-19 pandemic. On 2 April, 30 of the world’s main digital technology specialists gathered in a digital roundtable to assist advance WHO’s collaborative response to COVID-19.
This pandemic has triggered an unprecedented demand for digital well being technology options and has revealed profitable options corresponding to for inhabitants screening, monitoring the an infection, prioritizing the use and allocation of sources, and designing focused responses.
“We want your dedication, so we will flip these concepts into actuality and work with public well being companies and frontline well being employees to place this pandemic to relaxation,” stated WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in his welcoming comment. “We can solely sort out this world menace – and get our financial system again on observe – by working collectively.”
The assembly was co-facilitated by Steve Davis and Precious Malebona Matsoso, co-chairs of WHO Digital Health Technical Advisory Group.
The targets of the assembly have been as follows:
Bernardo Mariano Junior, director of WHO’s Department of Digital Health and Innovation, known as for unity in response efforts, “The world must be properly ready and united within the spirit of shared accountability, to digitally detect, shield, reply, and put together the restoration for COVID 19. No single entity or single nation initiative will likely be enough. We want everybody.”
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Geronimo Stilton creator to kickstart unique children’s e-book studying initiative amid COVID-19 pandemic
Much-loved children’s authors are becoming a member of an initiative to learn extracts of their books to tens of millions of children and young people at the moment dwelling in isolation amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the World is a collaboration between the International Publishers Association (IPA), the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. It kicks off right now, on International Children’s Book Day, at 15.00 GMT/17.00 CET with Italian creator Elisabetta Dami, creator of the fashionable character Geronimo Stilton.
“These are uncharted waters for us all, and the psycho-social effects of prolonged isolation and social distancing are yet to be seen and understood,” mentioned IPA President Hugo Setzer. “All of us should take particular care of our mental health at the moment, and especially that of young minds. The IPA wanted to do something positive to bring children and their favourite writers closer, to stimulate their interest in books and to create a carefree moment for families to share during this difficult period of confinement.”
“Children’s lives and routines have been turned upside down in just a few short weeks,” mentioned UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “Even when the outside world is out of bounds for now, reading can remind children and young people that the transportive power of books is unlimited.”
“WHO is committed to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic on all fronts, especially when it comes to protecting young people,” mentioned WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We understand the fear and anxieties many feel and know how the joy of reading can stimulate young minds, ease tensions and provide hope.”
Elisabetta Dami will learn on her private Instagram account in English from 15.00-15.30 GMT 17.00-17.30 CET. Dami, whose books have offered greater than 180 million copies round the world and are printed in 50 completely different languages, will even reply to feedback and questions by way of the platform.
Several different famous children’s authors have agreed to be a part of the Read the World initiative, particulars of which will likely be out there quickly at https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/read-the-world
About IPA
The IPA is the world’s largest federation of publishers associations. Established in 1896, it is an business physique with a human rights mandate, whose mission is to promote and shield publishing and elevate consciousness of publishing as a drive for financial, cultural and social improvement. Working in cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and different supranational our bodies, the IPA champions the pursuits of e-book and journal publishing at nationwide and supranational stage. Internationally, the IPA actively opposes censorship and promotes copyright, freedom to publish (together with by the IPA Prix Voltaire), and literacy.
Follow the IPA on Twitter and Facebook
About UNICEF
UNICEF works in a few of the world’s hardest locations, to attain the world’s most deprived children. Across greater than 190 international locations and territories, we work for each youngster, in every single place, to construct a greater world for everybody.
Follow UNICEF on Twitter and Facebook
About WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) is the United Nations’ specialised company for well being. It is an inter-governmental group and works in collaboration with its Member States normally by the Ministries of Health. The World Health Organization is accountable for offering management on world well being issues, shaping the well being analysis agenda, setting norms and requirements, articulating evidence-based coverage choices, offering technical support to international locations and monitoring and assessing well being tendencies. Learn extra at www.who.int.
Follow WHO on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
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A lot of legal issues are bound to arise as an aftermath of the outbreak of Coronavirus otherwise referred to as COVID-19. There is therefore a need to shed light on some of the issues that may arise and how to navigate them. This article will x-ray the rights of patients, the rights of health workers and the basic minimum obligations of the government.
The Code of Medical Ethics in Nigeria 2008 lists acts that constitute professional negligence. Rule 29.4 of the Code outlines some of these acts as follows:-
a) Failure to attend promptly to a patient requiring urgent attention when the practitioner was in a position to do so;
b) Manifesting incompetence in the assessment of a patient;
c) Making an incorrect diagnosis particularly when the clinical features were so glaring that no reasonable skillful practitioner could have failed to notice them;
d) Failure to advise, or proffering wrong advice to a patient on the risk involved in a particular operation or course of treatment, especially if such an operation or course of treatment is likely to result in serious side effects like deformity or loss of organ, or function;
e) Failure to obtain the informed consent of the patient before proceeding on any surgical procedure or course of treatment when such consent was necessary;
f) Making a mistake in treatment e.g. amputation of the wrong limb, carelessness that results in the termination of a pregnancy, prescribing the wrong drug, or dosage in error for a correctly diagnosed ailment, etc;
g) Failure to refer, or transfer a patient in good time, when such a referral or transfer was necessary;
h) Failure to do anything that ought reasonably to have been done under any circumstance for the good of the patient;
i) Failure to see a patient as often as his medical condition warrants or to make appropriate comments in the case notes of the practitioner’s observations and prescribed treatment during such visits. It also includes failure to communicate with the patient or with his relatives as may be necessary with regards to any developments, progress or prognosis in the patient’s condition.
Rule 11.2 of the 2008 Code of Medical Ethics in Nigeria provides that, “A physician shall preserve absolute confidentiality on all he knows about his patient even after the patient has died.”
Rule 44 of the Code of Medical Ethics has extensive provisions on Confidentiality and when disclosure of information can be made. The Rule provides in part that:
“Disclosure of information on the patient by the doctor can only be made following an informed consent of the patient in writing. It is clear that the ethic covers even such information as induced abortion, venereal disease, attempted suicide, concealed birth and drug dependence but would exclude situations in which a discretionary breach of confidentiality is necessary to protect the patient or the community from danger and this must be made clear to the patient at the time of the confidential disclosure. Where statutory notification of disease is involved, the consent of the patient is not required.”
Confidentiality: To Disclose Identity Of Covid-19 Patients Or Not To Disclose?
COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Most people infected with the COVID-19 will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment. Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more likely to develop serious illness.[1]
The Federal Ministry of Health confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in Nigeria on the 27th of February 2020. It is the case of an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and returned from Milan, Italy to Lagos, Nigeria on the 25th of February 2020. In reaction to the report, the social was divided between those who want the name of the Italian disclosed and those that preferred it remains confidential. The outcry was even more when the Chief of Staff to the President tested positive according to reports from various media houses[2], but the Minister of Health decided to keep mute on the identity of the President’s aide who contacted the virus, citing confidentiality.
It will ordinarily be wrong to disclose the medical status of someone infected with COVID-19, for instancethe case of the Italian who was the index case. However in view of the proviso to Rule 44 of the Code of Medical Ethics 2008 which provides that a discretionary breach of confidentiality is necessary in order to protect the community from danger, I am of the view that the test results of popular figures who hold strategic offices like the Chief of Staff to the President or a Governor must be disclosed to guaranty public safety. This is necessary in view of the countless number of people from all works of life they come in contact with on a daily basis. It will be correct to have made their status public in the overriding interest of the public, since it will enable those who have come in contact with them isolate, just like we have seen in the cases of the British Prime Minister, the Bauchi State Govenor, Prince Charles, the First Lady of Canada and many more. We must commend those who announced their status in public themselves-it is the best thing to do in the interest of humanity
The World Health Organization (WHO) provides additional guidelines for the management of coronavirus patients specifically.[3]
Health workers should:
•follow established occupational safety and health procedures, avoid exposing others to health and safety risks and participate in employer-provided occupational safety and health training;
•use provided protocols to assess, triage and treat patients;
•treat patients with respect, compassion and dignity;
•maintain patient confidentiality;
•swiftly follow established public health reporting procedures of suspect and confirmed cases;
•provide or reinforce accurate infection prevention and control and public health information, including to concerned people who have neither symptoms nor risk;
•put on, use, take off and dispose of personal protective equipment properly;
•self-monitor for signs of illness and self-isolate or report illness to managers, if it occurs;
•advise management if they are experiencing signs of undue stress or mental health challenges that require support interventions; and
•report to their immediate supervisor any situation which they have reasonable justification to believe presents an imminent and serious danger to life or health.
Doctors and health workers in Nigeria must endeavor to digest the guidelines in the Code of Medical Ethics as well as the WHO Guidelines for management of Coronavirus victims and ensure they work strictly by their provisions. A breach of these duties have dire consequences.
Options Available To Covid-19 Patients Who Are Victims Of Medical Negligence
A Coronavirus patient who has suffered medical negligence has a number of options:
1. He could file a complaint with the regulatory body (e.g. the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, in the cases involving a Doctor). The Doctor will in the first instance be investigated by the Medical and Dental Practitioners Investigation Panel, after which he will be tried by the Medical and Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal. If found culpable, the Doctor may be warned, suspended from practicing for a period not exceeding 6 months or in very serious cases, have his name can be removed from the Register of Medical Practitioners. The Medical and Dental Practitioners’ Disciplinary Tribunal does not award monetary damages.
2. A suit can be filed against the Medical Doctor, the Hospital, Agency or Government in the High Court for Medical Negligence and monetary damages will be awarded if the Defendant(s) are found culpable.
3. If there is an element of Crime, a report could be made to the Police who would conduct Criminal Investigation and where the investigation reveals gross negligence, recklessness or wanton disregard for life of the victim, the police can prosecute or forward the case file to the office of the Attorney General of the State for possible prosecution in deserving cases.
A Need To Do More For Doctors And Other Professionals In The Health Sector
Health workers are at the front line of any outbreak response and as such are exposed to hazards that put them at risk of infection with an outbreak pathogen (in this case COVID-19). Hazards include pathogen exposure, long working hours, psychological distress, fatigue, occupational burnout, stigma, and physical and psychological violence.
During the outbreak of Ebola more than 500 health care workers died in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra-Leone alone. We also lost some of our finest doctors and health workers to the disease in Nigeria, the most prominent being Dr. Stella Adadevoh, who is credited with having curbed a wider spread of the Ebola virus in Nigeria by placing the index patient, Patrick Sawyer, in quarantine despite pressures from the Liberian government. As we speak, The coronavirus is waging a war of attrition against health care workers throughout the world, but nowhere is it winning more battles at the moment than in Italy and in Spain, where protective equipment and tests have been in severely short supply for weeks. In Spain 13.6% (6500) of those affected with the coronavirus are health workers and in Italy 10% (7400) of those affected with the virus are health workers. [4] In New York dozens of health workers have been affected with the virus, while hundreds are in quarantine.[5] According to reports filtering in as the time of concluding this article, three health workers have been infected with COVID-19 in Abuja, Nigeria.[6]
Human Rights Watch research into health system collapse in Hungary and Venezuela suggests the nations’ mismanaged, underfunded, and understaffed public healthcare system is poorly equipped to handle a COVID-19 outbreak. Patients and medical experts described a lack of basic hygiene protocol, lack of isolation rooms, and a shortage of health professionals, doctors and nurses, and medical supplies in general.
The situation is not too different in Nigeria at the moment and except something drastic is done we might be witnessing a devastating effect of the pandemic. Nigeria’s, public health capacity has been diminished by large scale public sector corruption. Medical personnel lack surgical masks and local supplies have been diverted and shipped to other markets partly due to corruption. Many states are ill-prepared to combat the impeding surge in patients. A senior health worker with a government hospital in Abuja, in an interview with Sahara Reporters, lamented the lack of quality Personal Protective Equipment for them, adding that government must invest in the protection of health workers at the frontline of the battle against the virus. He said, “The unfortunate thing is that the government is not providing us with what to work with. It is sad that our PPE are not up to the world standard and can be penetrated by viruses. Some of us (health workers) have to use our personal funds to purchase gloves as we do not trust the ones government supplied. Nigerians should please remember us in their prayers and government should provide us with what we really need to work.” [7]
There was report that in Bauchi State a Coronavirus patient rejected the isolation centre at the Bauchi Specialist Hospital and went back home while describing it as “too dirty”.[8]
It is disappointing to hear that the hazard allowance for doctors and health workers is N5,000 per month in Nigeria. The amount is very paltry compared to the risks and the attendant emotional and psychological stress suffered by the health-care workers (HWCs) particularly during monumental outbreaks like this. Unfortunately, when a patient is mismanaged, these doctors and health workers bear the burden of paying huge compensation and sometimes losing their jobs. More importantly, the brain-drain in the health sector is monumental, almost all my friends who are doctors, work abroad. Unfortunately, there are concerted efforts by the US Government to engage foreign Doctors to further fortify its health work force as COVID-19 ravages. Many young Nigerian doctors are already considering the offers because the Nigerian government has paid little attention to their welfare and the welfare of the general health workforce. To stop the exodus of our doctors, who are already in short supply, the government must act fast by improving their welfare packages in line with acceptable international standards.
The psychological needs of doctors and health workers are also often ignored. Unsafe working conditions contribute to health worker attrition in many countries due to work-related illness and injury and the resulting fear of health workers of occupational infection, including from HIV and Tuberculosis. The 2006 World Health Report – Working Together for Health reported on a severe health workforce crisis in fifty-seven countries, most of them in Africa and Asia. [9]
Protecting the occupational health of health workers is critical to having an adequate workforce of trained and healthy health personnel. Governments at the Federal and State levels are urged to do more by complying fully with the World Health Organization’s guidelines regarding the Rights of Health Workers while combating COVID-19. Some of the rights are:
· assume overall responsibility to ensure that all necessary preventive and protective measures are taken to minimize occupational safety and health risks;
· provide information, instruction and training on occupational safety and health, including; Refresher training on infection prevention and control(IPC); and Use, putting on, taking off and disposal of personal protective equipment(PPE);
· provide adequate IPC and PPE supplies (masks, gloves, goggles, gowns, hand sanitizer, soap and water, cleaning supplies) in sufficient quantity to healthcare or other staff caring for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients, such that workers do not incur expenses for occupational safety and health requirements;
· not be required to return to a work situation where there is continuing orserious danger to life or health, until the employer has taken any necessary remedial action;
· allow workers to exercise the right to remove themselves from a work situation that they have reasonable justification to believe presents an imminent and serious danger to their life or health. When a health worker exercises this right, they shall be protected from any undue consequences;
· honour the right to compensation, rehabilitation and curative services if infected with COVID-19 following exposure in the workplace. This would be considered occupational exposure and resulting illness would be considered an occupational disease,
· provide access to mental health and counselling resources; and
· enable co-operation between management and workers and/or their representatives. Etc.
In conclusion, professional care givers for COVID-19 patients should uphold four basic principles formulated by Beauchamp and Childress in their book ‘Principles of Biomedical Ethics’ in order to protect themselves from liability for negligence. The four basic principles are autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice.
Autonomy: People have the right to control what happens to their bodies. This principle simply means that an informed, competent adult patient can refuse or accept treatments, drugs, and surgeries according to their wishes. People have the right to control what happens to their bodies because they are free and rational. And these decisions must be respected by everyone, even if those decisions aren’t in the best interest of the patient.
Beneficence: All healthcare providers must strive to improve their patient’s health, to do the most good for the patient in every situation. But what is good for one patient may not be good for another, so each situation should be considered individually. And other values that might conflict with beneficence may need to be considered.
Non-maleficence: “First, do no harm” is the bedrock of medical ethics. In every situation, healthcare providers should avoid causing harm to their patients. You should also be aware of the doctrine of double effect, where a treatment intended for good unintentionally causes harm. This doctrine helps you make difficult decisions about whether actions with double effects can be undertaken.
Justice: The fourth principle demands that you should try to be as fair as possible when offering treatments to patients and allocating scarce medical resources. You should be able to justify your actions in every situation. For instance, it will amount to a professional misconduct for a Health-care Worker to remove a poor man from the ventilator because a Senator was rushed in.
Ahmed Adetola-Kazeem is a partner in Adetola-Kazeem Legal Practice and specializes in Medical and Health Law
Email: aadetolakazeem@gmail.com;aadetolakazeem@gaklp.com
[1] https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1(Accessed on the 28th of March 2020)
[2] https://businessday.ng/coronavirus/article/abba-kyari-tests-positive-for-coronavirus-buhari-negative/
https://www.channelstv.com/2020/03/24/buharis-chief-of-staff-abba-kyari-reportedly-tests-positive-for-coronavirus/ (Accessed on the 28th of March 2020)
[3] Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) Outbreak: Rights, Roles and Responsibilities Of Health workers, Including Key Considerations For Occupational Safety And Health”. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-rights-roles-respon-hw-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=bcabd401_0 (Accessed on the 26th of March 2020)
[4] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/collapsing-virus-pummels-medics-spain-italy-69789413 (Accessed on 26th March 2020)
[5] https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/covid-19-hits-doctors-nurses-emts-threatening-health-system/2020/03/17/f21147e8-67aa-11ea-b313-df458622c2cc_story.html (Accessed on 28th of March 2020)
[6] http://saharareporters.com/2020/03/28/exclusive-two-nurses-one-doctor-infected-coronavirus-abuja-hospital
[7] Supra
[8] https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/coronavirus-patient-rejects-bauchi-isolation-centre-returns-home.html (Accessed on 28th March 2020)
[9] https://www.who.int/occupational_health/topics/hcworkers/en/(Accessed on 26th March 2020)
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WHO’s new user guide for countries, ‘Selection of medicines at country level’, is based on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. It sets out the key actions countries should undertake to develop and update their own
national essential medicines lists based on the treatment needs of their populations and their capacity to reimburse payments for medicines.
The document also aims to support countries in progressing towards universal health coverage. Today, approximately half of the world’s population is unable to access essential medicines. The large majority of these people live in poorer countries,
but rising prices of new medicines are also becoming a challenge for health systems in wealthy countries.
A careful selection of essential medicines is the first step in ensuring a population can obtain the quality-assured medicines it needs at an affordable price. Countries need to do more to ensure that all people and communities can access highly
effective medicines. WHO’s new manual is a resource to do just that.
The document, intended for policy makers in charge of national medicines and reimbursement lists, aims to increase transparency on how essential medicines are selected. Most national lists of essential medicines have several differences when compared
with WHO’s model list, which lists only medicines of proven safety and efficacy. Some national lists include medicines that bring little extra benefit to patients. Decision-makers should refer to the WHO global list to gauge the public health
value of listing certain medicines for their populations.
Essential medicines are:
The essential medicines concept is global and forward-looking. It incorporates the need to regularly update medicines selections to reflect new therapeutic options and changing therapeutic needs; the need to ensure drug quality; and the need for continued
development of better medicines, medicines for emerging diseases and medicines to meet changing resistance patterns.
Achieving universal health coverage and equity in public health depends on access to essential, high-quality and affordable health related technologies for all. To achieve access for all by 2030, at least two billion more people will need to have access
to essential health services by 2030.
In an effort to make the Model List of Essential Medicines more readily accessible, WHO recently developed an electronic version of the list, bringing the traditional EML to computer screens, tablets and smartphones in a freely accessible, downloadable,
online database.
Link to manual: Selection of essential medicines at country level
Link to e-EML: Model List of Essential Medicines
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Olabisi Deji-Folutile
Olabisi Deji-Folutile
The world is facing its most trying and unprecedented times as the last few weeks have been most challenging for almost everybody. What started in Wuhan, China, as an epidemic, has put the entire world in disarray. Major streets across the globes have become empty. Both the rich and the poor are being ravaged by the plague of COVID-19, which the World Health Organisation has rightly described as a pandemic. Work places have been shut; religious and social gatherings banned and many countries are on total lockdown, in a bid to curb the spread of this viral disease. Expectedly, schools are also affected across board. Every day people are being told to embrace social distancing and suddenly things like human contacts, hitherto considered as free gifts of life, are becoming very expensive.
No one knows when this whole chaos will end, so people are making different kinds of adjustments to cope with the situation while it lasts. Many companies have shifted their operations online. Likewise, many schools have opted for e-learning, making use of available technology for teaching and learning.
Universities around the world are making use of communication technology to ease the effects of the global pandemic on their academic calendars. In China, universities are going for online teaching instead of in-class teaching; the ones in Australia have moved their classes online just as UK universities have suspended face-to-face teaching. Turkey started its remote university classes on March 23. In Kenya, universities have activated communication between lecturers and students via social media platforms and emails while classes have gone totally online in the Philippines and Kyrgyzstan. Teachers in France have been working with their students on Zoom.
Just a few days ago, Ghana’s President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, directed the ministry of education to collaborate with the ministry of communications in rolling out open learning programmes in response to the closure of all educational institutions in the country. In the same vein, Mount Kenya University’s Vice-Chancellor Peter Wanderi, has announced the extension of online teaching platforms for regular students to facilitate the learning process. And to take care of the over six million students that have experienced disruption to their studies, ten North African and 12 Arab countries have begun work on an e-learning initiative to facilitate open and online education.
These are some of the steps being taken across the globe to bridge the gap created by school closure in the wake of COVID-19. Unfortunately, while all these activities are going on in other parts of the world, Nigerian government has not said anything about steps being taken to take care of its students’ community. Rather, the only message from the Federal Government was a total closure of all tertiary institutions and FG-owned unity schools till further notice. A statement issued by the National Universities Commission simply said universities would remain shut for one month while the Education Minister, Adamu Adamu, said tertiary institutions would remain shut indefinitely.
Assuming government has been overwhelmed by the burden of controlling the spread of COVID- 19, hence its silence on options for learning for its teeming student population, one would have expected the higher institutions themselves to at least say something, but as it is, they too are not helping matters. The silence in our universities has been deafening. To worsen the situation, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, decided to choose this time, of all times, to embark on an indefinite strike. One wonders how the academic body manages to feel comfortable being on a strike at a time when researchers across the globe are busy looking for solution to a pandemic that is ravaging the entire world. This kind of action makes one query the essence of having Research and Development as a core component of tertiary education in Nigeria when researchers can be nowhere to be found at a critical time of societal needs.
By now, our researchers should be adding their voices to the various efforts being made towards developing a vaccine or cure for COVID-19. After all, universities are expected to proffer solutions to societal problems. This is a wrong time for ASUU to embark on an indefinite strike. This should be a time of strategising and proffering solutions. This is really the time for everyone to get involved. Besides, I think Nigerian universities should also be more forthcoming on their responses to the challenges posed to their students by COVID-19.
As it is, religious organisations are doing far better in terms of their responses to the effects of this pandemic on their primary constituencies. Many of them have devised other means of getting the attention of their members following several government directives prohibiting either gatherings or limiting the number of people allowed to congregate at a time. Almost all the churches have switched to online platforms for their services. How come religious organisations are working hard to keep their flocks and both government and higher institutions in Nigeria are just moving on as if all is well? No word on how to keep the students busy or keep them engaged using available online technology! Should teaching and learning be restricted to the classrooms alone in this 21st century?
Nigeria has always been described as a religious society. Corona Virus has further exposed the smartness of our religious bodies and the dullness of those in charge of our public educational institutions. This is not an attempt to blame any religious organisation for having the foresight to deploy technology in reaching their audiences. Instead, it is a wakeup call to managers of our educational institutions to adopt and use available technology to help their students at a time like this.
Apart from the National Open University of Nigeria, which basically runs online, I doubt if there is any other public university in the country that has capacity for online teaching. This is in spite of the launch of the Nigerian Communication Satellite known as NIGCOMSAT by the Nigerian Government first in 2007 and then NIGCOMSAT-IR in December 2011, to provide critical ICT backbone infrastructure to support e-learning, among others in the country.
What is the essence of investing so much money in a communication satellite if it cannot be deployed at a time of need? Those in charge of NIGCOMSAT, the commercial arm of Nigeria’s space centre, have consistently claimed that the technology has the capacity to cover the entire Africa. If that is the case, why is the country still struggling to deploy internet connectivity facilities to its schools to aide e-learning? If we are truly a serious country, by now, all the schools in urban and rural areas should have been connected to the e-learning services.
No doubt, COVID-19 has exposed Nigeria’s unpreparedness for e-learning. But, we can’t afford to remain where we are. That is why it is important for every institution to start thinking of how to deploy available technology in the world for the good of their students at this critical period. Universities should as a matter of urgency migrate online. This shouldn’t be another season of waiting and probably wasting for the Nigerian student. There is no reason why any higher institution worth its name should suspend all academic activities until the end of Corona Virus with all the available resources and technology in the world today. The minimum expected of them is to upload teaching resources online for students to have access to them. At least this will give the students the opportunity to learn on their own.
This is also an opportunity for telecommunications companies like Glo, MTN and the rest of them to make a difference in Nigeria’s educational institutions. They can as part of their corporate social responsibility decide to boost internet facilities in universities and other educational institutions; or provide data at cheaper rates to help poor students have access to the internet for online learning.
I know there are obvious stumbling blocks to digital learning in Nigeria. Many students don’t even have access to devices while the cost of buying data is still high. These challenges and others have provided telecommunications companies a huge opportunity of making a difference in Nigerian higher institutions by providing e-learning solutions and broadband connectivity to universities and other higher institutions.
They can as part of their corporate social responsibility decide to boost internet facilities in universities and other higher institutions; or help poor students who have limited or poor internet access to enhance online learning.
Olabisi Deji-Folutile is the Editor-in-Chief of Franktalknow.com and member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors. Email: bisideji@yahoo.co.uk
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Understanding your Medicare options is an important part of planning for health care costs in retirement.
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Different accounts can help you reach different goals. Here’s a breakdown of the most common options for saving for college, a minor, and everything else.
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