Appraisal of the Level of Preparedness of Nigerian Universities amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

A Case Study of University of Benin, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Education is among the sectors with overwhelming impact on the control and management of COVID-19 pandemic. With the emergence of the lockdown condition and school closure due to the pandemic, both teachers and learners are helpless on how to continue learning, hence the need to investigate the preparedness of schools to carry out academic activities. The study investigated the University of Benin’s level of preparedness to teach in the post Covid-19 era. The descriptive research with survey design had a population of 9986 fresh students registered in the 15 Faculties/Schools of the University of Benin as of 2019/2020 academic session, of which 406 students were randomly selected to form the sample size of the study. A questionnaire titled “Observance of Covid-19 Protocols in the Teaching-Learning Process Questionnaire, (Covid-19QUE)” was designed, validated, and pilot tested (r=0.84, N=20) and administered for about three weeks. Mean and standard deviation statistics were used to answer the two (2) research questions raised for the study. The findings regarding research questions one and two revealed that the level of preparedness of the University of Benin to teach students in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic is low (2.25), and there is no variation in the level of preparedness among faculties. It was concluded that Nigeria, especially the universities, have not responded to the global challenge by complying with the established Covid-19 protocols to fight the pandemic. It was recommended that the University of Benin should endeavour to increase the space available, which can be done by building more classrooms and recruiting additional lecturers, among others.