Stories of how Covid19 impacted children's education in Africa.

1. Our Stories
Impact of covid 19 on children’s education in Africa

2. .
Published by Xplorers Without Borders
April 2021
www.xplorerswithoutborders.org
Our Stories
This compilation of stories
is made possible by a grant
from National Geographic
Society.

3. Contents
Introduction Eyitayo’s story-
Nigeria
Oluwatobiloba’s
story - Nigeria Emmanuel’s
story - Nigeria
Adroa’s story-
Uganda
Balinda’s story -
Uganda
Balondemu’s
story - Uganda
Kofi’s story -
Ghana
Kwame’s story -
Ghana
Akani’s story –
South Africa
Azivaishe’s story
– South Africa
Conclusion
Balinda’s story -
Uganda
Obinna’s story -
Nigeria

4. Introduction
Enters the Wuhan Virus aka Covid-19…
As a popular African saying goes, ‘no one knows tomorrow’ and so it
was that in late 2019, the world was greeted with the news of the
deadly Wuhan virus, the causative agent of the Covid-19 pandemic
which killed hundreds of thousands of people around the globe. It
started in Wuhan, China and before we knew it, it had spread to
every part of the globe, causing most countries to shut down to slow
the spread. Africa was not left out as the government of many
countries imposed a lockdown which lasted for months. The first
casualty was the education sector as schools were shut down and
children made to stay at home for a long time, thereby worsening the
crisis in the education system in Africa.

5. Introduction
Faced with this negative situation of leaving the children at home
while the parents went to work and risking the children forgetting
all they had been taught, getting into trouble, and losing valuable
academic time, some schools, especially private schools, decided to
conduct online classes while others, mostly public schools, resorted
to learning via radio.
Although online classes helped in many ways, but there were
obstacles as expected in any venture. In this compilation, a few
students from primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions across
Africa share their experiences on how the Covid-19 pandemic
affected their schooling.

6. Azivaishe’s story - South Africa
Schools were shut for a long time because of
the Covid-19 pandemic and now that schools have
re-opened, teachers are rushing us, trying to
cover the scheme of work as we must start a
new class. The school no longer gives us holidays
and the way they are going, they may deny us
short breaks if possible.
Since resumption in February, there have been
many restrictions.

7. Azivaishe’s story
It is also very sad that a lot of my favorite
teachers had died from covid. This is the
worst part for me. I wish this didn’t happen.
Classes are now rushed just so that we can
cover as much as possible in the little time.
For me, I must double my efforts because the
workload at school is heavy. Teachers just
touch the key points and ask us to read up. So,
it’s been demanding, and I don't like the rush
as it is so stressful.

8. Eyitayo’s
story
Nigeria
For the past six years, I have been staying
with my grandfather who is a farmer in a
remote village in Oyo State, Nigeria. He
never stops talking about why he insisted that
I move in with him – my parents argue and
fight about almost everything, and he doesn’t
want me to grow in that kind of environment.
He also always says that my parents are too
modern in their approach to life. The old
ways, according to him, are the best ways of
raising a child.

9. Eyitayo’s
story
The few times that dad stopped by to check
up on me, I greeted him by prostrating, but
he always laughed in sarcasm and say that
“Baba is already turning my son into a village
boy.” My grandfather would always interject,
“No child raised under my roof will ever
stretch his hand to an elder for a handshake.”
He’d then turn to me and say, “Eyitayo, can
you see what I always tell you about your
parents? The Oyibo people have taken our
culture away.”

10. Eyitayo’s
story
I sometimes struggle with my grandfather’s
old approach to things. Not like I know
exactly what the “old way” means but at least
I spent my first seven years with my parents,
and it seems to me that their approach to life
is less strict than my grandfather’s. Looking
back at when the news was all over that there
is a new disease in the country called
“Corona”, I can’t forget how my grandfather
took things so lightly that I started thinking
to myself “Ah, I just hope baba won’t get us
all killed”.

11. Eyitayo’s
story
First, he strongly believed that there was
nothing called Corona…COVID…or whatever
“we people” call it. “It is just a mere cough
and catarrh,” he insisted. Despite all the
information available on the news about the
Corona Virus and precautions that one is
expected to take to stay safe, my
grandfather never observed any of the
precautions. Initially, he stopped me from
taking any of the measures too and would say
“it’s like these ‘Oyibo’ (Caucasians) people
want to colonize us for a second time.

12. Eyitayo’s
story
This is how they give you big problems and
make you feel that they are the only ones
that can solve the problems.”
After some time when he started receiving
firsthand information about those who he
knew that lost their lives due to Covid-19, his
stand changed slightly. “Well, that thing that
you people call COVID…ehn…if I enter my
farm now and cut a few leaves for herbs, in
just few days, the sickness will disappear.” By
this time, he had reluctantly allowed me to
start observing the few social distancing
measures that I was taught in school, but he
never observed any.

13. Eyitayo’s
story
He’d refuse to use any nose cover, allowed
visitors to come as they pleased, refused to
wash his hands regularly and even conversed
with people in very close ranged, you would
almost think that he was determined to
contract the virus.
When a total lockdown was imposed in the
state and the number of causalities was
rising, he started changing his mind a little.
“This Covid-19 thing is getting serious o. Of
course, I still don’t believe that it exists…and
if it exists, the numbers are not that high.
The government is just trying to scare people
and collect more money from the Oyibo
people.”

14. Eyitayo’s
story
He’d continue, “If anybody has COVID, let
them come to me and I will give then herbs
that will cure it in hours…this cure that Oyibo
people have not been able to discover.”
One day, I noticed that I had lost my sense
of taste and it seemed to me that I couldn’t
smell anything around me. I wasn’t sure how
to complain to my grandfather that I was
suspecting I had COVID. When he eventually
discovered that I was having fever, he rushed
to his kitchen with black liquid and said, “Take
this and drink, even if it is Corona, it will go
now now.” I drank the very bitter herbs but
after hours, I wasn’t even sure if I was
feeling better or worse.

15. Eyitayo’s
story
When news reached my parents that I had
fallen ill, they rush down together for the
first time in a long while. “We are taking this
boy from you today. Eyitayo is our only child,
and we won’t let you kill him with your belief
that herbs are the solution to every disease
in the world. Surprisingly, I was fully back on
my feet before we got home that day. Up till
now, I remain unsure if it was Covid-19 or
something else.

16. Eyitayo’s
story
I was not returned to my grandfather until
the end of the lockdown, when school finally
resumed. It felt good seeing my friends again
and having to learn new things in school.
What I am still not sure of is if COVID is
over or not because everyone seems to be
living their normal lives without precautions in
the state.

17. Oluwatobiloba’s story- Nigeria
My name is Adetunbi Oluwatobiloba. The first time I heard
about Covid-19 was when I was eleven; that was sometime
towards the end of 2019. I didn’t think much of it because
I assumed it was just one of those Sci-Fi scripts about
aliens invading our planet. Yes, I saw on a news station how
people had seizures on the streets of China, most of them
hardly making it to the hospital before dying eventually.
By the time I celebrated my twelfth birthday in January
2020, Corona Virus had already become a global worry.
Unfortunately, most people in Nigeria didn’t believe that
COVID existed.

18. Oluwatobiloba’s story
Even my mom, though a medical practitioner didn’t believe
its existence until one day she came back from work with
an obvious anxiety. It took my dad close to thirty minutes
to calm her. When she was finally able to narrate what
happened at work that day, we were all terrified.
A patient, assumed to have contracted flu, was admitted.
My mom had watched as his conditioned worsened and had
to be had to be moved to the emergency care unit of the
hospital. Unfortunately, at this time, there were no
available testing kits in the hospital and there was no way
of confirming if the patient had COVID or not. He
eventually lost his life after unbearable pains.

19. Oluwatobiloba’s story
My mom’s concern however was not about the patient’s death;
it was that she was one of the nurses that attended to the
patient. Her anxiety when she came back home was because of
the eventual discovery that the patient had died of COVID-19.
Everyone in the hospital became a suspected carrier of the
virus, including my mom, and now she wasn’t sure that she had
not spread it to us, her family.
The panic that filled the air made things so worse that the
next day, I had developed fiver and catarrh. Of course, no one
was sure of what caused my fiver, but it was easy to have wild
guesses because of my mom’s recent exposure to the dead
patient.

20. Oluwatobiloba’s story
To make matters worse, it was said on the news that
the government had declared that anyone with
showed any slight sign of flu is a suspected carrier
of the Corona virus and should be reported to some
designated phone lines. My parents weren’t sure of
what to do about it and even more afraid of taking
me to the hospital because some suspected carriers
of the virus who had been quarantined by the
government had made many complaints on the news
about the terrible environment and conditions in
which they were confined.

21. Oluwatobiloba’s story
Thankfully, a malaria test was run on me, and it came out positive,
which probably meant that any symptoms of COVID that I was
showing were mere signs of panic – at least according to my mom.
There was no way a Covid-19 test could be run on me as there
were very limited testing kits available in the country. Not leaving
things to chance, my dad stopped us all from leaving the house
and we were indoors for not less than fourteen days to self-
isolate. It was before the end of the fourteen days of isolation
that the start of the total lockdown was announced in many
states in the country. This prolonged my stay at home to six
months as schools were indefinitely closed.

22. Oluwatobiloba’s story
Many precautions were put in place in my family
including restricting our movements and ensuring we
have limited contact with people. My mom was more
afraid than anyone else maybe because she works at
a hospital and saw more cases of COVID-19 patients.
Many times, she would come home sad as she gave us
stories and updates of cases. It was a great relief
for her when she was eventually transferred to
another unit in the hospital where she would have
little or no contact with Covid-19 patients.

23. Oluwatobiloba’s story
Because of fear, my mom couldn’t allow us have any home teacher.
She couldn’t trust the health status of any visitors and so there
was no interaction between me and anyone else outside the
confines of my family of four. This greatly affected my social life
as I was always indoors either watching TV, playing video games, or
sleeping.
Returning to school after the lockdown that lasted six months
came with new challenges. I was no longer used to waking up early
like I used to before the lockdown. This messed with my health for
some time until I was eventually able to adjust to the new routine
of making it to school early as I used to.

24. Oluwatobiloba’s story
I lost memory of some of the things I was taught in school before
the lockdown and that messed with my scores in classwork.
Thankfully, I am back to myself, and things have returned to
normalcy.

25. Kwame’s story - Ghana
The Covid-19 pandemic affected my education
negatively because I was at home doing nothing
and it was boring. Even when I made up my mind
to read a book, I usually found the book
uninteresting.
“To read was like a waste of my strength
because in school, when a teacher says you
should read, you are forced to do as the teacher
has commanded.

26. Kwame’s story
But now, when I open a book to read, I get
distracted by irrelevant things and when I get
distracted, I would lose interest because it's
not a command from the teacher. I would do
what my heart desires, and the reason my
heart wouldn't go to the act of reading is
because my mind can't punish me.
Secondly, it affected me negatively because I
forgot some of the things, they had taught me
in school.

27. Adroa’s story - Uganda
I never knew I could stay away from school
for as long as I did. During the lockdown,
reading at home was a little challenging, and
not many of us had the opportunity to attend
online classes at that time. I used most of
the time to play with friends, leaving little
time for studies. Even after schools re-
opened and we went back to school, some of
my classmates could not resume with us.
Some parents lost their jobs due to the
Covid-19 pandemic and could no longer afford
the school fees, so the children had to drop
out of school. I don't like such long vacation
at all.

28. Emmanuel’s story -
Nigeria
I was fully dressed for school on a Tuesday morning
in March 2020 when my mom came into my room to
inform me that my siblings and I would not be going
to school that day. I was not sure why we would not
be going to school, but I was sure of the joy I felt
when I heard the news. It meant that I would have
all the time to play, sleep and watch TV at home. Not
wanting to be perceived as an unserious student, I
walked up to my mom with a fake show of concern to
ask her why we were being mandated to stay indoors
and not go to school, all she responded was “There is
Corona outside”.

29. Emmanuel’s story
Of course, I didn’t understand what Corona meant
and not like I really cared; all that matter was that I
would not be going to school that day. Before I could
open my mouth to say another word, she interjected
“Emmanuel, keep shut and stop asking questions.” I
suspect she knew I was just pretending to be sad
about not going to school.
The next day took almost the same turn except that
this time around, I didn’t even bother to get my
things ready for school. Surprisingly, the rebuke I
expected from my mom never came. It was at this
point that I concluded that whatever was making us
not go to school must be a serious thing.

30. Emmanuel’s story
As days went by, I noticed that conversations
between my parents mostly revolved around this
thing called Corona. According to them, everything
happening in the world was because of Corona. I was
tempted to ask them what Corona was one day, but
then I quickly remembered that it was rude for a
twelve-year-old like me to interrupt the elders. The
scolding that came with the last time I attempted to
interrupt their discussion is unforgettable. My mum’s
most common question was “Don’t you know that
there is Corona outside?” She’d usually ask not
because she was expecting a response, but that was
her way of saying “Be warned!!!”.

31. Emmanuel’s story
After about two weeks of staying home, I had
already started getting bored. My siblings and I had
already run out of things to do with the time we had.
Our routines had become predictable – wake up, take
our bath, eat, watch TV, play games, eat, eat, and
eat. Dad always seemed worried that we were
spending our time doing nothing meaningful. My mom
especially complained that we were eating like
termites and that the food expected to last a month
had finished in two weeks. “Don’t you know that
there is Corona outside?”

32. Emmanuel’s story
One evening, my mom came back home with a long
sheet of colorful paper that had a lot of pictures
that I didn’t understand. She refused to hand the
paper to any of us but instructed us to all be seated,
“we need to talk”. After some minutes of silence, she
started with a stern look “There will be new rules in
this house from today and I want you all to listen
carefully. If you disobey…hmmm.” I thought to
myself that there were more than enough rules that
we’ve had to abide by already; adding new ones to it
would be impossible. She started reading the new
rules to us.

33. Emmanuel’s story
“You must wash your hands regularly…you must always
cover your mouth with your elbow when coughing…you
must not leave this house without your nose
cover…and so on”.
After spending almost fifteen minutes reading out
the new house rules, I asked her why we must follow
these new rules, she shouted “Emmanuel, shut up!!!
Don’t you know that there is Corona outside?”

34. Emmanuel’s story
To make sure that we made a better use of our time,
my siblings and I were compelled to watch the
evening news every day. It was on one of those
evenings that a short documentary was shown on
Corona Virus. That was the first time I heard the
word COVID-19. I saw as people died from this
diseases, I saw children like me going through pains
and having difficulty in breathing and many people
even dying from this disease. I also heard that there
was no known cure for it. I started crying because I
was scared. That was when my mom’s new rules made
a lot of sense to me.

35. Emmanuel’s story
I have had a series of nightmares since the short
documentary. I could not easily forget the gory sight
of many dead people being loaded into trucks, all
these people victims of Covid-19.
To make sure that we made a better use of our time,
my siblings and I were compelled to watch the
evening news every day. It was on one of those
evenings that a short documentary was shown on
Corona Virus.

36. Emmanuel’s story
That was the first time I heard the word COVID-19.
I saw as people died from this diseases, I saw
children like me going through pains and having
difficulty in breathing and many people even dying
from this disease. I also heard that there was no
known cure for it. I started crying because I was
scared. That was when my mom’s new rules made a
lot of sense to me. I have had a series of nightmares
since the short documentary. I could not easily
forget the gory sight of many dead people being
loaded into trucks, all these people victims of Covid-
19.

37. Emmanuel’s story
By the second month of our stay at home, I realized
I had been seeing more of my dad at home. It was
unusual of my dad to be home during weekdays until
evenings, but during these times, there was days
that he didn’t even go out at all. Sometimes, I would
run into him talking with no one in the room with him.
He seemed sad about something. On one of those
occasions, I walked up to him and hugged him, and
for the first time, I saw tears streaming down my
dad’s face. I asked him what was wrong, but he said
he was fine. I would later learn from my elder
brother, Samuel, that dad had lost his job…Even
mum’s salary was slashed by half or even less.

38. Emmanuel’s story
Thankfully, dad got another job like a month or two
later, but not until things got so bad that we sometimes
had to skip meals. After he got another job, things
went back to normal with our feeding.
We finally returned to school after six months of stay
at home. At the gate of the school, I saw the same long
sheet of colorful paper that mom brought home some
months earlier. The same rules were to be observed in
school. Before resuming school, I didn’t have much fear
about contracting Corona Virus because I was mostly
indoors with my siblings. Now, I am more worried
because there is a higher risk of contracting the virus
where there are more people in a place.

39. Emmanuel’s story
By this time, I had forgotten many of the things I
learned before the lockdown. I am still struggling to
remember many things I had been taught. In the last
Biology test I wrote, I knew I was going to get a lot
of answers wrong. So, after the scripts were
marked, my teacher called me and asked why I
performed so woefully. I responding with my mom’s
usual question, “don’t you know there was Corona?”
Although we both laughed at my response, I
admitted that I might be needing extra classes and
I had not yet recovered from the effect of the long
stay at home. I am grateful that things are better
now, after all, Corona does not seem to be outside
anymore.

40. Balinda’s
story
Uganda
The Covid-19 pandemic affected my
schooling negatively in the sense that
I had to wait for an extra year to be
able to graduate. I should have
graduated last year but I am
graduating this year instead. The
months that were wasted had negative
impact on my schooling. Also, we didn’t
have online classes, so we did not have
to grapple with the issue of paying for
online classes, buying data and network
problems.

41. Balinda’s
story
In the area of coping during the
lockdown in terms of studying at home
alone, honestly, at first, it wasn’t so
hard because we just left school but
after a while, when it seemed, schools
were not going to resume anytime soon
and nothing was happening, almost
everyone at one point or the other got
tired and a lot of people did not
bother about their books anymore, so
it affected us.

42. Balinda’s
story
Months and months of not having any
educational exercise or contacts, made
us lose the verve, the energy and
motivation to study but no classes, no
tests, no exams so nothing to bother
about. The effect it had on me was that
when we resumed and were to start
exams, it wasn’t easy for most of us to
get back in the mood to study. It took a
while trying to adapt back to school life
again after most of us had diverted into
one thing or the other. For me, it wasn’t
so difficult, but it wasn’t easy either
because of the long periods wasted.

43. Obinna’s story - Nigeria
“Since we resumed after the Covid-19 pandemic, we
have been divided into little groups that come to
school on alternate days that is one day on, one day
off. We are 20 in class as against over 80 in class.
I now go to school only on Tuesdays and Thursdays
and this affects my studies as it is not all the
subjects that are being taught. Government should
please increase the number of days we come to
school so that we can learn well.”
Government should employ more teachers and let
the classes resume fully.”

44. Balondemu’s
story
Uganda
The Covid-19 pandemic affected my
schooling both negatively and positively.
“Online classes were not highly effective
because if you don’t understand
something, there is no way you will
understand it. Even if you ask questions,
they end up answering it the exact way
they taught it initially so there is nothing
much you can do.
Personally, it has not affected the time I
am supposed to spend in school because
classes were going on online throughout
the period of lockdown.

45. Balondemu’s
story
Some schools, especially public schools, were
not so lucky so they lost some valuable time and
have a lot of catching up to do. Some schools
just resumed for the third term while we are
writing our end of term exam right now.
In the area of interacting with my fellow
students, it didn’t really affect me negatively
because we have WhatsApp groups and could
interact on Instagram although it is not the
same as physical face-to-face interaction, but
it wasn’t that bad.
We had to pay extra because the school
charged for the online classes after we had
paid fees for the term that didn’t end.

46. Kofi’s story - Ghana
Yes, the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent
lockdown affected me in that it changed
the way I attended school. We had most of
our classes online and even now, some
students no longer come to school, they
study online encouraged by both parents
and some teachers.
It also affected me financially because we
spent more than the normal fees we were
paying as we had to pay for the online
classes although we paid less than we
usually pay per term.

47. Kofi’s story
Again, online classes do not give you the
freedom to do some things you can do in the
physical classroom, for instance, maths
problems that require physical treatment.

48. Akani’s story - South Africa
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on my
education will not be forgotten in a hurry because
no one was prepared for it. But despite
everything, the pandemic made some positive
impacts on my education. As a final year secondary
school student, it gave me enough time to study
and get ready for my exams which was supposed
to take place in 2020 but because of the
pandemic which broke out my exam was moved
forward.

49. Akani’s story
Although I really felt bad but at the same time, I knew
that it was an opportunity to put more effort into my
studies to have better grades in my exams. Usually, I
am the kind of person that loves studying only at night
but because of the pandemic, I would wake up every
morning on daily basis without doing anything. I had no
choice but to start reading during the day though I
was not used to it, and I never enjoyed reading during
the day; but during the lockdown, I was able to adapt
to reading during the day.

50. Akani’s story
So, during that time, when I got tired of reading
my schoolbooks, I would switch to some other
materials which can profit me spiritually and
otherwise. One of those was my Bible. I would
meditate on my Bible after which I pray, you
know, the kind of prayer that I have never
prayed since I was born. I was able to pray such
prayers during that period of Covid-19 pandemic
because there was enough time; in fact, more
than enough time.

51. Akani’s story
I could read up to three to five hours a day.
Nonetheless, the Covid-19 pandemic also had its
negative side on my education as I was unable to
interact with my friends especially my teachers
to ask some questions about some topics, I
didn't comprehend during studies so I could get
more explanations for better understanding but
because of the pandemic, schools were on total
shutdown, so I was unable to meet with my
teachers.

52. Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed reading these
stories. Would you like to share your own
story too?
Send your story to -
info@xplorerswithoutborders.org.
Xplorers Without Borders is set to inspire
young people like you to become problem
solvers and achieve quality education in
Africa despite the limitations posed by
covid19.
We will rise above these challenges.
www.xplorerswithoutborders.org
Published by Xplorers Without Borders
April 2021

53. Credits These stories were
transcribed from
interviews, focus group
discussions, and
questionnaires.
Special thanks to all the
students from Nigeria,
Uganda, Ghana, and South
Africa, for participating in
this project.
Images
Pics 4 Learning
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