AS OF the detection of the first case tested positive for Covid-19, on March 12, 2020, the Gabonese authorities had decided to suspend courses in the sector of National Education and Higher Education for an indefinite period
OF the detection of the first case tested positive for Covid-19, on March 12, 2020, the Gabonese authorities had decided to suspend courses in the national education and higher education sector for an indefinite period.
A year later, the choices made have considerably changed the course of things. Between canceling the end-of-year exams for 6th and 3rd year classes and setting up distance learning, learners and teachers had to adapt to a post-Covid learning mode. If at first some expected a temporary crisis, due to the phases of deconfinement and reconfinement, the educational community has continued to make adjustments.
Indeed, in the face of this invisible enemy, the Minister of Education, Patrick Mouguiama-Daouda, signed a substantive agreement with Unesco last May for a more resilient distance education system. Only here: since the States General of Education in 2010, the Gabonese government had not anticipated the use of digital in all high schools and colleges.
Considered by several observers to be the sector most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, knowing that it involves almost the entire population, through training and professional integration of young people, the field of Education ceased to function for more of a year.
Although the decision to stop going to school, taken by most governments, was aimed at containing the pandemic – and by inviting learners to stay in their own homes – new processes have been discovered. It must be recognized, the Covid-19 has undoubtedly exposed all the difficulties in which Gabonese education is struggling.
Hans NDONG MEBALE
Find the entire article in the full digital version
Return to the Gabon Culture & Society section
–
