Uchechukwu Nnaike
In spite of the negative effects of the lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the management of Queen’s College, Lagos said it provided an opportunity to bring teachers closer to students leveraging on technology.
The school said it has designed and built user friendly customised access controlled e-platforms for learning to minimise the impact of mental idleness and boredom, which is one of the perils of the lockdown on students.
“Our teachers have adopted the new way of teaching through Interactive Boards and Simulated Recorded Class Environment (IBSR). During the course of this, we have discovered that our children feel more connected to their teachers’ teaching methods, hence they are delighted with the advent of e-learning initiative by the Principal, Dr. Mrs Tokunbo Yakubu-Oyinloye.
According to the Chairman, Queen’s College PTA, Damola Adewuyi, another advantage of this new dawn is the emergence of an e-library that will serve as resource and learning aids for students now and in the future.
He said the lockdown has also open up an avenue for resourceful parents to be in the same chat room with their children and share professional lessons in diverse fields, ranging from various subjects like Mathematics to diverse topics on Psychology: ‘Improving Academic Excellence’, ‘Mental Health Awareness’, ‘Handling Bullying and Peer Pressure’, among others. “These were handled by renowned professionals in their fields, while Dr. Gbenu Akanbi of the University of Lagos, handled the pychological mentoring, Professor Moses Akanbi (Professor of Mathematics, Lagos State University) tutored our Queens on diverse ways in improving their mathematical skills and excelling in external exams.”
Adewuyi added: “This lockdown has further connected our Queens with their big sisters and mothers: The Queen’s College Old Girls Association (QCOGA). Through the association, their Youth Initiative and Technical Committee has began plans for machine learning and artificial intelligence training. Various other mentoring projects in diverse areas are being put together for the education growth and psychological wellbeing of our Queens.”
He stressed that this period is a time of reflection, improvement and renaissance among management staff, parents and students of the college. “Our selfless teachers have with great zeal and optimism adopted the new technological approach to teaching and have become very familiar with technological tools via the use of Zoom, Edomodo, Google Classroom, Telegram, Whatsapp, Webex, Freeconference and other online avenues for teaching. Needless to say, their presentation skills has been enhanced due to professional and ‘self’ trainning. They have adapted and embraced the usage of Powerpoint and other interactive technological accessories. Our students now enjoy learning from the comfort of their homes across the country.
“The Parent Teacher Association hereby appeals to the Federal Ministry of Education to help schools across the country preserve knowledge using electronic means. This should proceed beyond this lockdown. Recorded knowledge is priceless and we have come to appreciate this with COVID-19.”
The PTA chairman thanked the principal and her management team for bringing forward the initiative to ensure that the students stay engaged during the lockdown, as well as the PTA EXCO members, parents, teachers, SBMC, old girls and the Federal Ministry of Education for embracing the initiative.
