COVID-19: Pandemic Dropped School Attendance To 54%

The effect of the coronavirus pandemic, which has stalled economic growth in most global countries including Nigeria, has similarly affected the educational responsiveness of children attendance in schools.

Months before the gradual reopening of schools in various states, concerns grew on the effect of the lockdown on the educational sector. This led to the adoption of alternative eLearning of school aged children between 5 – 18 years, as suggested by the Ministry of Education.

Report by the Nation Bureau of Statistics, placed the attendance of school aged children at 58. 6 percent in October 2020. This is sustainably lower than the 74.0 percent recorded in January/ February 2019. The urban sector attendance stood at 60 percent in 2020 compared to its 85.1 percent in 2019, while the rural sector attendance stood at 58.1 percent in 2020 compared to its 70.1 percent in 2019.

“The main reason that school-aged members did not attend school in October 2020 – reported for 57% of those who were not attending school – was that schools were still closed due to the coronavirus restrictions.”

More Females Attended School in 2020

The report, however, placed the attendance of female school children slightly 1.2 percent higher in October 2020, despite the pandemic effect. Female pupils closed an attendance of 59.2 percent on survey compared to the male children of 58.0 percent.

When compared to 2019, male school children stood at 74.7 percent while a 73.2 attendance below recorded for the female school children. Aside from the effect of the pandemic, factors including finance, admission status, age restriction also contributed to the decline in October’s report. However, the total percentage of schools closed due to the pandemic effect is 57.4 percent.