How Did They Cope: Analyzing the Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Private School Teachers in Ekwusigo Local Government Area, Anambra State of Nigeria
- November 18, 2020
- Posted by: RSIS Team
- Categories: COVID-19, Education, IJRISS
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue X, October 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186
Ilodibe Stephen Ifenna1, Patrick, Ogechukwu Blessing2
1Faculty of Politics and Public Management, Department of Administrative Management, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
2Faculty of Education .Department of Education, Leadership, and Management, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
This quantitative research analyzed the effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on private school teachers in Nigeria and investigated into their coping strategies. The effects included loss of job, depression from prolonged inability to afford basic needs. These teachers coped through starting a second stream of income, gifts and borrowed funds, and importantly noting that there were little or no government assistance. The researchers also investigated to know whether the gender, grades taught by the teachers and locations of school showed any meaningful difference when compared against their level of perception of the effects of the pandemic on them. There was no meaningful difference with regards to teachers’ gender and grades taught when compared against their perception of the effects of pandemic on them but there was a significant difference with regards to location of school (urban, suburban and rural) taught. The research revealed that these teachers who could barely live off on their meagre salary pre-pandemic suffered amid the pandemic and proffered important recommendations for individual and national references. This research employed the survey research method, private school teachers filled the questionnaire online, and the data collected was analyzed using the SPSS 20 program. This research also provided a significant comparative analysis of private schools funding in Nigeria and other countries, thereby revealing how private schools funding and existence have been paid little or no attention in Nigeria.
Keywords: Covid-19 pandemic, Private schools, Private school teachers.
Background of study
The coronavirus pandemic is an unknown acute respiratory tract infection which broke out first in Wuhan, China in late 2019 and suspected to be sourced from a seafood market as bats were understood to be the potential reservoir of SARS-CoV-2 (Giovanetti et al., 2020; Paraskevis et al., 2020). According to Guo et al., (2020), World Health Organization, (2020), & Hui et al., (2020), the new coronavirus which is contracted through contact with infected humans has the following signs of human infection to include respiratory symptoms, fever, and cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In severe cases, COVID-19 infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death.
The coronavirus outbreak initially spared Nigeria and many other African countries with no recorded case as of January 2020. This luck, however, did not last. But by late February, Nigeria reported its first case (Hussain, 2020). In the middle of March 2020, the Federal Ministry of Education approved school closures as a response to the pandemic. Ever since, Covid-19 has deeply affected schools’ academic activities and interrupted the income inflow for schools and teachers. The pandemic unmasked substantial inequities in the education sector but private and non-governmental sectors have been tirelessly working to salvage this situation (Amorighoye, 2020).
