IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC SCHOOL CLOSURE ON EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF STEM

The education sector was brutally affected generally but Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education which before the advent of COVID-19 was already bedeviled by enormous challenges whose solution appears illusionary, may be the worst hit. The study investigated the impact of COVID-19 school closure on the teaching and learning of STEM. The survey design was adopted, sample consisted 240 STEM students and 72 STEM teachers randomly selected from 12 secondary schools in Anambra State, Nigeria. Two questionnaires; COVID-19 pandemic School closure Impact on STEM- Education (CSIS-E), (one for teachers and one for students) were used for data collection while mean, frequencies and percentages were used for data analysis. Result showed that the COVID-19 school closure posed a lot of challenges to the already fragile STEM education, some of which include, poor learning delivery, occasioned by unequal access to On-Line education, poor digital literacy and requisite skills, technology devices, poor availability, affordability and connectivity to the internet, lack of training and funding, among others. Consequently, the closure impacted negatively on STEM education in the areas of students getting frustrated and dropping out of the sciences, no practical activities were conducted, achievement gaps were widened, students with special needs could not be effectively attended to, assessment and evaluation for transition was not spared. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made among which is that government and all stakeholders in education should urgently overhaul the existing curricula at all levels, and incorporate remote learning enabled components, semi-blended and self-paced elements without disadvantaging any child

Covid-19 pandemic, effective teaching and learning, STEM, school closure,

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