Journal of Advocacy, Research and Education

66-69

Authors: Abel Ebiega Enokela

The pandemic took the whole world by surprise and has caused considerable havoc in every area of human endeavour. The paper traced the origin of COVID-19 from Wuhan province in China to Nigeria. The pandemic generated a lot of adverse effects in the country by bringing untold hardships on the educational, economic, social, and psychological lives of the people. However, the emphasis of this paper is on the effects of the pandemic on education. This paper presents a review of the impact of COVID-19 on Nigeria’s education. To this end, the author explored the educational and learning concepts with recommendations for future adjustments. The study noted that since the Federal Government of Nigeria announced the closure of its 104 Unity Schools on 26th March 2020, to check the spread of the coronavirus, all other schools, including higher institutions of learning, were also shut down. This closure order, coupled with poverty, negatively affects students’ learning. School counsellors in Nigeria must reach out to students to assist in managing their emotional maladjustment and develop the resilience to cope with their studies despite the challenges of the pandemic in the education space. Additionally, access to virtual learning opportunities ought to be provided by the state and other stakeholders in education to support academic activities during the pandemic. Also, the government must ensure adequate post-lockdown plans to assist students in returning to everyday life gradually.

80-87

Authors: Smileth Ncumisa Mxotswa, Symphorosa Rembe, Bellita Banda Chitsamatanga

Teenage pregnancy in South Africa remains heavily present despite implementing policy on Measures for the Prevention and Management of Learner Pregnancy in Schools. Anchored on a qualitative approach, using semi-structured, focus group interviews and document analysis as data collection techniques, the study used a sample size of 21 participants from three Secondary Schools as case studies. Data were analysed thematically following the inductive sequence of thematic analysis. The study results explain the following paradox: regardless of the stated strategies, schools under research used non-inclusive strategies to implement the policy. These tended to side-line the elderly and educationally challenged parents. Parents were not conversant with the policy and felt the strategies were non-beneficial because of their non-involvement during the formulation and the implementation processes. Results of the study provide evidence for a need to enhance ownership of the policy through different capacity building programmes which solely targeted parents.

95-107

Authors: Kingsley Chinaza Nwosu, Willem Petrus Wahl, Emmanuel Nkemakolam Okwuduba, Chioma Ogu

Though lifelong education has been emphasised in current literature, studies focusing on the wellbeing of sandwich students in Nigeria have been scarce. Our study set out to identify sandwich students’ academic stressors and how they cope with these stressors. The quantitative cross-sectional survey research design was applied in our study. Using a convenience sampling technique, 164 sandwich students participated in the study. Our findings showed, among others, that students perceived overcrowded hostels, congested lecture schedules, time pressure to cover the course before exams, and inconsistent lecturing timetables to be the most significant stressors of their programme. Students had higher mean scores in approach and social support coping strategies than in an avoidance coping strategy. Also, gender, year of study, and marital status were not significant factors in students’ adoption of coping strategies except in social support coping, where marital status was a significant factor. Our findings show that sandwich students face some challenges that result in academic stress and are inclined to adopt mostly task-based strategies to cope with academic stress. Implications of the findings were highlighted.