COVID-19: IMPLICATION ON EDUCATIONAL SECTOR
Abstract
COVID-19 had a negative implication in our educational system. COVID-19 which originated in china spread across the world and Nigeria was not spared. It was when WHO recognized it as a pandemic that the Federal Government of Nigeria decided to shutdown the country in march 2020 in order to curtail the spread of the virus in which the educational system was not spared. This lead to students being sent home from school due to the compulsory lockdown of all schools, parents resulted into buying of data to enable their ward(s) attend online classes via zoom. In the course of this seminar, the types, origin, spread and prevention of COVID-19 was considered. The method of gathering data was book reviewed and surfing of internet. It was recommended among others that as COVID-19 strains national economies and budgets, we need to protect domestic education and ensure that education remains a priority for national government.
INTRODUCTION
COVID-19 is a deadly virus that originated from Wuhan in china in 2019; Coronavirus Disease is a contagious disease that first emerged in Wuhan, China in 2019. It was later coded “COVID-19” by the World Health Organisation in 2020 (WHO) which stands for Coronavirus Disease 2019. The Coronavirus outbreak remains one of the worst global pandemics. The mortality rate soared and the ease of spread was upsetting. Research showed that older people and those with underlying medical problems like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer were more likely to develop serious illnesses from coronavirus (W.H.O, 2020). Some of the symptoms of Coronavirus include; Sore throat, runny nose, constant coughing/sneezing, breathing difficulty and fatigue.
According to Baytiyeh,(2019) the recent outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic increased the gaps in the education sector globally. Though, the Coronavirus pandemic is novel, but it already has dangerous effects on humanity. COVID-19 outbreak has created educational disruptions and global health concerns that proved very difficult to manage by global health systems. As at now, no nation or race across the world is immune from the coronavirus pandemic, and the entire world seems overwhelmed by the speed of the spread and the devastating effects of COVID-19. The coronavirus pandemic has no boundaries, and the effect is large and fast.
Just within few months of the outbreak of the disease, it has drastically changed the lifestyles of the entire world with billions of people being forced to ‘stay at home’, ‘observe self isolations’, and work and learn from home. It has limited the freedom of people to move, trade or associate. Not only has COVID-19 caused a total lockdowns in many countries across the world, but it also caused the death of thousands of people including, women, and the elderly. It was more worrisome to know that reports from various continents, including, America, Africa, Asia, and Europe indicated a daily increase in the number of new cases, and mortality due to COVID-19.
As at April, 2020, the number of global COVID-19 cases has surpassed one million cases and more than 14,620 deaths. It was also frightening that the USA recorded more than 2000 COVID-19 deaths in a single day despite the country’s strong commitment to the fight against the contagion. The number of Coronavirus deaths was soaring with no immediate solutions in sight (Baker, 2020). The disease showed no sign of slowing down across the globe. The COVID-19 outbreak triggered the former President of the United States, President Trump to invoke the “Defense Production Act”. The government also issued a national emergency as a result of the growing number of new cases of Coronavirus in the country (Alvarez 2020).
COVID-19: IMPLICATION ON EDUCATIONAL SECTOR
The U.S government also negotiated with the parliament to approve more than 2 trillion US dollars stimulus package to combat the Coronavirus pandemic, and to provide some reliefs to citizens and businesses affected by the Coronavirus outbreak. Similar actions were also replicated in many other countries including, Germany where 810 billion US dollars were also set aside to contain the effects of the pandemic, yet the virus rapidly spread to many parts of the world. The outbreak of COVID-19 affected all aspects of human activities globally ranging from education, research, sports, entertainment, transportation, worship, social gathering/interactions, economy, businesses, and politics. Indeed, the entire world was in distress as a result of COVID-19 threats, the reality of the situation was challenging to bear, and the education sector remains one of the worst-hit by Coronavirus outbreak (Burgess & Sievertsen, 2020)
Recently, by the end of 2019, WHO was informed by the Chinese government about several cases of pneumonia with unfamiliar etiology. The outbreak was initiated from the Hunan seafood market in Wuhan city of China and rapidly infected more than 50 peoples. According to Wang, Horby,Hayden,&Gao(2020),the live animals are frequently sold at the Hunan seafood market Wuhan, China such as bats, frogs, snakes, birds, marmots and rabbits . On 12 January 2020, the National Health Commission of China released further details about the epidemic, suggested viral pneumonia. From the sequence-based analysis of isolates from the patients, the virus was identified as a novel coronavirus. Moreover, the genetic sequence was also provided for the diagnosis of viral infection. Initially, it was suggested that the patients infected with Wuhan coronavirus induced pneumonia in China may have visited the seafood market where live animals were sold or may have used infected animals or birds as a source of food.
COVID-19: IMPLICATION ON EDUCATIONAL SECTOR
However, further investigations revealed that some individuals contracted the infection even with no record of visiting the seafood market. These observations indicated a human to the human spreading capability of this virus, which was subsequently reported in more than 100 countries in the world. The human to the human spreading of the virus occurs due to close contact with an infected person, exposed to coughing, sneezing, respiratory droplets or aerosols. These aerosols can penetrate the human body (lungs) via inhalation through the nose or mouth.
The government’s response was coordinated by a Presidential Task Force, established in early March (Ameh, 2020), that worked closely with the NCDC. The NCDC was made responsible for public health campaigns and for overall management of the testing, isolation, and treatment of patients. Nigeria’s government was quick to recognize the potential scale of COVID-19’s economic costs and was among the first developing countries to announce fiscal and stimulus measures to cushion economic impacts. These measures included reducing government spending in anticipation of lower revenues, and providing ₦53,625,000,000.00 trillion to support households and small and medium-scale enterprises (Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning, 2020).
More importantly, Nigeria’s government was among the first on the subcontinent to enforce social distancing. All schools in the country were closed in mid-March, and several states and local authorities instituted bans on public and social gatherings. After a second case was confirmed in Lagos, Nigeria instituted bans on foreign travelers from 13 “highly-infected” countries and stopped issuing visas on arrival. By late-March, with 44 confirmed cases, the government closed its land and air borders to all travelers for an initial period of 4 weeks, and suspended all passenger rail services (Ogundele, 2020).
On 29 March, 2020 President Buhari announced specific restrictions for Lagos, FCT, and Ogun States, which together contain 14% of Nigeria’s population. These “lockdown” measures restricted the movement of residents outside of their homes. They also closed many business operations, as well as the borders linking the lockdown states to the rest of the country. Passenger air travel was also suspended nationwide (FGN, 2020). Shortly afterwards the Presidential Taskforce issued exemptions for medical services, agricultural activities, food manufacturers and retailers, telecommunications, and certain financial services (PTF,2020).
The president also announced some palliative measures, mainly food distribution and a 2-month advance payment of the conditional cash transfers made by the government to vulnerable citizens. On 13 April, 2020 President Buhari announced a 2-week extension of the federal lockdown policies, which were also expanded to include Kano state.
Although it was the federal government that directed lockdown measures in four states, numerous other states implemented their own lockdown policies, sometimes predating the federal policies. States with significant social distancing measures included Akwa Ibom, Borno, Edo, Ekiti, Kwara, Taraba, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, and Rivers. These lockdowns generally started with school closings, limited trading hours in informal markets, and restrictions on large social gatherings, including religious and sporting events. Restrictions were gradually expanded until they largely resembled the federal lockdowns (e.g., stay-at-home orders and the closing of businesses and state borders).
COVID-19: IMPLICATION ON EDUCATIONAL SECTOR
By the end of April, 2020 the group of states under lockdown measures accounted for almost two-thirds of the national economy. Under growing pressure to relax restrictions, the President announced that lockdowns would be eased in Lagos, FCT and Ogun states starting from around mid-May, but that the lockdown in Kano would be extended until early June. During June, 2020, and despite continued increases in daily cases, the government lifted restrictions on domestic airlines and interstate travel and allowed schools to reopen for graduating students. The number of new cases peaked at the end of June and fell during July and August, 2020. On 3 September 2020, the government lifted all remaining restrictions on local markets.
MEANING OF COVID 19
Covid19 is a disease caused by a new strain of corona virus. “CO” stands for “corona” “VI” virus and “D” for disease, the first case was discovered in 2019 (Bensen, 2020)
According to Zhu, Zhang , Wang, Li, Yang and Songa, (2019), Coronaviruses are enveloped single-stranded RNA viruses that are zoonotic in nature and cause symptoms ranging from those similar to the common cold to more severe respiratory, enteric, hepatic, and neurological symptoms
COVID-19: IMPLICATION ON EDUCATIONAL SECTOR
According to dictionary of cancer, a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. SARS-CoV-2 is thought to spread from person to person through droplets released when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks. It may also be spread by touching a surface with the virus on it and then touching one’s mouth, nose, or eyes, but this is less common. The most common signs and symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough, and trouble breathing.
Fatigue, muscle pain, chills, headache, sore throat, runny nose, nausea or vomiting, diarrhoea and a loss of taste or smell may also occur. The signs and symptoms may be mild or severe and usually appear 2 to 14 days after exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Some people may not have any symptoms but are still able to spread the virus, these people are called asymptomatic. Most people with COVID-19 recover without needing special treatment.
But other people are at higher risk of serious illness. Those at higher risk include older adults and people with serious medical problems, such as heart, lung, or kidney disease, diabetes, cancer, or a weak immune system. Serious illness may include life-threatening pneumonia and organ failure. Research is being done to treat COVID-19 and to prevent infection with SARS-CoV-2. Also called coronavirus disease 19.
MOST COMMON SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF COVID-19
Fever, Dry Cough, Tiredness
Less Common Symptoms:
Aches and Pains, Sore Throat, Diarrhoea, Conjunctivitis, Headache, Loss of Taste or Smell, A Rash on Skin, Or Discolouration of Fingers or Toes
SERIOUS SYMPTOMS:
Difficulty Breathing or Shortness of Breath, Chest Pain or Pressure, Loss of Speech Or Movement
ORIGIN OF COVID 19
The first human cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19, subsequently named SARS-CoV-2 were first reported by officials in Wuhan City, China, in December 2019. This may be the reason the meaning of covid19 was first known as China Originated Virus in December, 2019 (Brown,2020). Retrospective investigations by Chinese authorities have identified human cases with onset of symptoms in early December 2019. While some of the earliest known cases had a link to a wholesale food market in Wuhan, some did not. Many of the initial patients were stall owners, market employees, or regular visitors to this market.
COVID-19: IMPLICATION ON EDUCATIONAL SECTOR
Environmental samples taken from this market in December 2019 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, further suggesting that the market in Wuhan City was the source of this outbreak or played a role in the initial amplification of the outbreak. The market was closed on 1 January 2020. SARS-CoV-2 was identified in early January and its genetic sequence shared publicly on 11-12 January. The full genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 from the early human cases and the sequences of many other virus isolated from human cases from China and all over the world since then show that SARS-CoV-2 has an ecological origin in bat populations.
All available evidence to date suggests that the virus has a natural animal origin and is not a manipulated or constructed virus. Many researchers have been able to look at the genomic features of SARS-CoV-2 and have found that evidence does not support that SARS-CoV-2 is a laboratory construct. If it were a constructed virus, its genomic sequence would show a mix of known elements. This is not the case. Another coronavirus, SARS-CoV-1, the cause of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, was also closely related to other coronaviruses isolated from bats.
These close genetic relations of SARS-CoV-1, SARSCoV-2 and other coronaviruses, suggest that they all have their ecological origin in bat populations. Many of these coronaviruses can also infect several animal species. For example, SARS-CoV-1 infected civet cats and then humans, while the virus causing the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) is found in dromedary camels, and has continued to infect humans since 2012.
All available evidence for COVID-19 suggests that SARS-CoV-2 has a zoonotic source. Since there is usually limited close contact between humans and bats, it is more likely that transmission of the virus to humans happened through another animal species, one that is more likely to be handled by humans. This intermediate animal host or zoonotic source could be a domestic animal, a wild animal, or a domesticated wild animal and, as of yet, has not been identified. All the published genetic sequences of SARS-CoV-2 isolated from human cases are very similar. This suggests that the start of the outbreak resulted from a single point introduction in the human population around the time that the virus was first reported in humans in Wuhan, China in December 2019.
A number of investigations to better understand the source of the outbreak in China are currently underway or planned, including investigations of human cases with symptom onset in and around Wuhan in late 2019, environmental sampling from markets and farms in areas where the first human cases were identified, and detailed records on the source and type of wildlife species and farmed animals sold in these markets.
Results from these studies are essential to preventing further zoonotic introductions of SARS-CoV-2 into the human population. (Association of African Universities. 2020) WHO continues to collaborate with animal health and human health experts, Member States, and other partners to identify gaps and research priorities for the control of COVID-19, including the eventual identification of the source of the virus in China.