Coronavirus, big blow to education.

The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria has lamented the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which, it said, dealt a major blow on the education system.

The Registrar/Chief Executive of TRCN, Prof. Olusegun Josiah Ajiboye, on Thursday said this at a briefing held in Abuja.

He said, “COVID-19 brought came with a lot of challenges in the education system and all the other aspects of human lives in the country as well as globally. No fewer than 1.6 billion children globally were not able to attend schools when we had the first lockdown and about 62 million teachers all around the globe were also affected.

“Now, we are trying to navigate how to go back to school, how to reopen; safe reopening of schools and we believe strongly our teachers will need a lot of support and to be able to support their children in the pandemic and other emergencies.

“That is why in TRCN, we conceptualised the idea of having a conference for the teachers where they will learn the nitty-gritty of the pedagogical knowledge and skills they will require to teach in pandemic situations and other emergencies.

“Presently close to 400,000 teachers and other educational practitioners all over Nigeria and even outside (the country) have so far registered for that conference.”

The theme of the online conference scheduled to start on January 26 is, ‘Teaching and learning in the context of COVID-19 and other emergencies: Implication for teachers’ professional development.’