Despite the spread of the pandemic, it was observed that schools sought alternative methods to engage students in learning activities during the lockdown. However, while some students were able to access quality education, others were not able to access it. This divergence in the quality of education received during the pandemic can be attributed to the quality of teachers. Hence, this chapter discussed the impact of teacher quality on education during emergency times. The discussion of the chapter was sectionalized in four sections. The study noted that during time of emergency, the quality of teachers shows a glaring disparity as teachers in low-income schools deliver poorer educational services than teachers of high-income schools. In conclusion, the study presented a way forward regarding the challenges identified.
TopBackground
Pandemics and natural disasters of any kind spare no child. Many countries are affected during issues such as pandemic and Nigeria is not left out. The outbreak of the Corona virus or COVID-19 pandemic led to the loss of lives, sources of income, social stability and most importantly educational development in the world and Nigeria in particular. As part of the Nigerian’s government responses to the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, schools across the national and at all levels were order to shut down on 19th March 2020. However, few states such as Lagos state introduced online, radio and TV lessons in their public and private schools. However, children in rural and underserved communities in Nigeria who had no access to communication facilities were being left behind as they are not equipped to adapt to new method of learning.
Furthermore, teachers who are not Information and Communication Technology (ICT) savvy were aggravated by the gaps posed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Nigerian education. This led to further complications and stagnations as children were left to the street and indulged in order unproductive activities to fill up their time. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the dearth in teacher quality in Nigeria. Teacher qualities are prerequisite attributes teachers bring with them to the classroom (Stronge & Hindman 2021). These qualities include but are not limited to verbal ability, content knowledge, education coursework, teacher certification, and teaching experience (Stronge & Hindman 2021). Words such as ideal, analytical, dutiful, competent, expert, reflective, satisfying, diversity-responsible, and respectful have been used to describe good teachers (Cruickshank & Haefele, 2001). Teachers’ quality is said to be the most important factor influencing learners' outcome (TALIS, 2015).
In Nugeria's secondary education, teachers' quality is an important yard stick for measuring students’ performance (Josiah & Oluwatoyin, 2017). Poor teacher quality has an adverse effect on the quality of education given to students in Nigeria. It was observed by Josiah & Oluwatoyin (2017) that many teachers in Nigeria schools are not computer-literate and they were not even in the habit of accessing the internet for new ideas about the subject they teach. The implication of the poor quality of teachers was manifested in the COVID-19 pandemic, as many teachers thus struggle to keep up with the new trend of virtual education adopted by the country. This thus further exacerbated the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria’s education system and secondary school teachers’ professionality, which culminated in students’ performance in their academic activities.
As a result of these issues that have been identified, this paper examined the qualities of teachers during emergency times, through a review of teachers performance during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Specifically, the study sought to address the following:
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a brief overview of Corona Virus Pandemic and its impact on education.
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preparedness of teachers towards this emergency and post emergencies
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challenges this pandemic has posed on teachers and students
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way forward to overcome the challenges