Psycho-Social Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic on Online Teaching of Secondary Schools in Nigeria

: COVID-19 pandemic has been a huge challenge to the educational systems in Nigeria. This required a new strategy which guided teachers, institutional heads and officials on how to address the crisis and continuing teaching and learning activities and still maintaining social distancing among students. The study assessed the effectiveness of online teaching; psychosocial effect of COVID-19 outbreak and the relationship between psychosocial effect of COVID-19 pandemic and online teaching among secondary school students in Nigeria. Descriptive Survey Research design was used in which data from 150 respondents was collected using self-administered questionnaire from six selected secondary within Oyo states in Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to sample the respondents. The data was analysed using descriptive and Pearson Product Moment correlation analysis. The result showed that online teaching is not that effective in the study area. Some psychosocial effects of COVID-19 outbreak were discovered among secondary school students in Nigeria in this study such as disturbed education, communal quarantine and difficulty in learning. The result of the hypothesis revealed that there is significant relationship between psychosocial effect of COVID-19 pandemic and online teaching of secondary schools in Nigeria. It was therefore recommended that, to teach remotely, schools and colleges should train their staff and take advantage of asynchronous learning, which works best in digital formats. The normal classroom subjects, teaching should include varied assignments and work, also, when constructing curricula, students should be introduced to online assessment to helps students familiar with the effective use of online teaching.


INTRODUCTION
Education been the process of facilitating learning, skills, value, belief, acquisition of knowledge have been a continuous duty of all educational institutions for the past fifty years worldwide.COVID-19 pandemic has led to a serious situation of global health emergency and has brought in many deaths.To curb the spread of this virus, lockdown was implemented in order to handicap the spreading, social distancing and limiting contact with one another.This continues process had never witnessed disruption on such a large scale all around the globe.UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay (2020) opined that the global academic calendar has been thrown into a state of disarray by the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic also known as COVID-19.All schools from basic to university levels shut down their doors and returned students to their parents for self-quarantined.Most of schools activities were put on hold and university research programs were postponed to curb the spread of the virus.Hajime et al (2022) stated that universally, since February 2020, COVID-19 has spread swiftly.It is compulsory to cultivate and put on suitable teaching procedures for excellence contagion device medically but unfortunately this has not been proven.
COVID-19 was detected in Wuhan, China on 31st December, 2019 and on 20th January, 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that the virus spreads through human to human transmission.Ray and Tarek (2022) stated that, COVID-19 is an austere medical disorder of critical respiratory anguish generated through contamination with virus SARS-CoV2.Obviously, it is not everyone contaminated had COVID-19, but the older people are prone to it than the younger ones.The impediments of contamination lead to death in some circumstances.The virus has challenged several sectors such as health, education, finance, automotive, engineering and many others.Social distancing and excellent medical care have been the measure to control the spread of the virus.In view of Heini As of today more than thirteen million people have been reported as infected by the virus and more than five hundred thousand have been reported as dead.This has warranted a complete shutdown of all the industries and various sectors in which health and educational institutions are not exception.COVID-19 outburst has disturbed the worldwide healthiness and education which had demonstrated very problematic to control by global health organizations.The shutdown of the education institutions has led to apprehensions among the students and teaching community.However, this led many of the teaching community to adopt innovative methods to interact with the students to continuing their teaching in order to complete their syllabus.According to Yasmin (2022), with the efforts of fighting the extent of COVID-19, nations have moved away from old-style of teaching.School closure is the closing down of schools as a result of the pandemic, emergencies, labour strikes, disasters or deliberate efforts to reposition a school or curb crimes in a given campus or environment.In Nigeria, all schools were closed down, scheduled tests and examinations were also cancelled.The report showed that the schools that closed down for COVID-19 might not resume back for the rest of the academic year.
Federal governments in the country closed down schools in response to the increased cases of COVID-19 in the country.The government believed that children were at very high risk from contacting the virus and closing of schools was the only way to prevent the spread of the virus via the children.National University Commission (NUC), which is a universities controlling body in Nigeria immediately shutdown all universities in the country.Nigeria government also suspended societal get-togethers and operation stay at home to work for workers.Schools in countries like Australia, Brazil, Singapore and Sweden were kept opened as a thoughtful strategy to contain the contagion while numerous countries shut down their schools.According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) observation, above 100 countries executed the closure countrywide (UNESCO, 2020).

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Yosuke, Shoko and Claudia (2022) stated that life value of the populace has strictly been stimulated not merely on economic predicaments rather on communal segregation and existence of prompt acclimatizing to prominent lifestyle modifications due to the determinations of combating COVID-19 pandemic.The disruption caused by COVID-19 in the health and educational sectors had been lasting longer than expected since no reliable solution for the virus has been found on time, and the spread of the disease continues.UNESCO Director-General, Andrey Azoulay cited by VOA News (2020), cautioned that "the worldwide gage and educational rapidity interference due to COVID-19 was incomparable and if elongated, could threaten the right to education".It may possibly adversely disturb the students' educational performances.There could be poor academic performance, damage of education curiosity and young crimes participation which might lead to redundancy if students are not engaged effectively.Quentin (2014) stated in his study that school closing is very controversial, and this could have spillover effects on a large number of students in receiving schools.This disruption can affect the quality of teaching and learning and academic achievements particularly for students with special needs or those with learning difficulties that often requires more physical attention and guidance from the teachers.
Though, technology has been helpful as remedy to some of the fallouts from school closures, but it cannot replace the important effect of face-to-face interactions of students and teachers.The study of Erika and Nicholas (2020) stated that school closures can either be reactive or proactive.It further stated that reactive closing schools occur upon the discovery of COVID-19 case among the students, staff or parents whereas proactive closure of school occurs before the disease spreads to schools.Individuals with restricted digital talents, training and incomes for sustainable education had tendency of experiencing increase pressure on students, teachers and parents at closure of schools during the COVID-19.This however, upsurges parents' burdens not merely for struggling provision at homes, but also to accomplish supervisory duty to ensure their wards study from home.Shutting of schools could lead to prolong period of students graduation, incur additional debits on students' fees and ruin students' academic visions.Extended school closures may result to increase rate of dropouts due to loss of interest and lack of resources to continue.It could also increase crimes' rate because persistent closures of schools can result to redundancy which may add to undesirable peer influences and youth involvement in crimes if not properly Disturbed Education: the learning activities provided by educational institutions were stopped and students were deprived of chances for progress and advancement in their education.Inadequate contact into digital portals for learning: accessibility to technology or good internet connectivity for continued e-learning during school closures was not available to some locations and also some families do not have the money to purchase deices to enroll their ward in e-learning activities.
Communal Quarantine: closures of schools deprived the youth and children of some societal interactions and socializations which were essential to learning, development and creativity.Explorers were adversely affected since schools were shut down and their abilities were limited from direct interactions with students and teachers or from accessing school facilities.In the submission of Erika and Nicholas (2020), school closure is not the only measure to alleviate COVID-19.It encouraged families opportunities to select what is best appropriate for them, while applying stronger justification methods.Nevertheless, in divergence to Erika and Nicholas's point of view, the president of the New South Wales Teachers Federation was against school re-opening during the outburst of COVID-19.His thought was that the class sizes and school designs could prevent school social distancing implementations.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of the study is; 1.To assess the effectiveness of online teaching among secondary school students in Nigeria.2. To examine the psychosocial effect of COVID-19 outbreak on secondary school students in Nigeria.3. To find the relationship between psychosocial effect of COVID-19 pandemic and online teaching of secondary schools in Nigeria.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following research questions were raised for the purpose of the study 1.To what extent is online teaching effective among secondary school students in Nigeria? 2. What are the psychosocial effects of COVID-19 outbreak on secondary school students in Nigeria?
Research Hypothesis H0: There is no significant relationship between psychosocial effect of COVID-19 pandemic and online teaching of secondary school students in Nigeria.

LITERATURE REVIEW Perception of Online Teaching
Online teaching is the teacher-students and student-student collaboration through supply of teaching materials by means of internet allotting educational materials.The opportunities of either synchronous or asynchronous learning in online teaching support students' participation in a large group at a particular period (Arunaz et al, 2021).Methods of teachers have increased through advancement of technology which enhanced them to be facilitators, mentors, motivators and inspire students to participation and learning (Onyema & Deborah, 2019).Technology facilitates remote teaching, distance learning, virtual teaching, blended learning, mobile teaching, distributed learning, cooperative and collaborative learning etc. Substantial online courses and numerous learning methods to enhance various learners which are suitable for instructive skills upsurge availability to learning resources (Onyema et al., 2020).Hannah and Michael (2022) assumed that generally amongst the students, psychological effect has been experienced unduly.Few of these technology tools/platforms are Skype, Google Classroom/Open Online education, Youtube, udemy, edx, Zoom, Whatsapp etc. Online teaching improves teacher-student relationships, teaching and learning familiarities, formation, course involvement, valuations, and responses.Instructors had assess to network with their students at any location and fixed lectures at convenient times.For advancement of digital abilities with the evolving educational trends, students and educationalists can boost the machineries for complementing classroom teaching.However, capability, vision, awareness, employability, self-assurance and production of both teachers' and students upsurge the curiosity for technological skills in readiness for the future.

Effects of Online Teaching during COVID-19 Pandemic of Secondary Schools in Nigeria
Since social distancing has been the suggested measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 all around the world, the decision to close schools appears to be right considering the need to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.The implementation of online teaching has helped to engage secondary school students in continuing their study at the various homes and still observing social distancing.Most of the secondary students in Nigeria were about to start examination when the lockdown started, especially the terminal examinations such as junior/senior WAEC, NECO, NABTEB.To observe social distancing, all these examinations had to be postponed till further notice.Online teaching has helped secondary school students in Nigeria to continue the studying in homes, preparing them for the upcoming examinations when the pandemic subsides.The unplanned closure of schools worldwide revalidated the need for adoption and deployment of technologies in education.The outbreak of COVID-19 had recently increases the global demand for online teaching also known as e-Learning.Technology has the potential to facilitate education to any location including home via the use of technological devices.
Sequel to health predicaments and challenges, technology remains vital to student-teacher link and communiqué specifically during separations and seclusions of lockdowns.Staying at home all day could be very challenging for students especially the digital millennials who are very mobile and inquisitive in nature.Therefore, with the aid of technology, learners and educators can be productively and educationally engaged to reduce the boredoms that could push them become irresponsible during lockdowns for pandemics.Youssef et al (2022) postulated that underprivileged internet connectivity obstructs teacher-students communication.Regardless the struggles of tackling the damage in teaching, some indigent schools have not found their footing accessing online teaching.Secondary schools that have implemented the use of evolving technology knowledge into their systems before the outbreak of COVID-19 had a comparative advantage over those who were yet to embrace technology in their educational system.These is because teachers were required to teach remotely using online platforms and students also need to stay connected and adjust to the new teaching and learning techniques.
The transition to online teaching posed a challenge to learners in this region of the continent where there were no relevant infrastructures and facilities that facilitate online teaching.In rural areas, the difficulty of digital device remains a major problem for learners due to the fact that their students and teachers habitually experience deficiencies in the desirable facilities and proficiency of implementing teaching and learning as many are deficient of the necessary digital skills for the implementation of the online teaching.All through the pandemic, technology was the only means of connecting the educational gaps which erupted from the impromptu school closure.The outbreak of COVID-19 which had forced millions of students to study and learn from home is not a new phenomenon because the home has long been epicenters of learning particularly as regards informal education.Schools with inadequate knowledge of e-learning or schools without the e-learning resources usually experience problems, especially, when teachers have no understanding of how to make use of online applications (Zaharah & Kirilova, 2020).Formal e-learning from home is new to majority of the students particularly in Nigeria.However, the realities of receiving formal education from home could be very challenging to many educators, learners and parents as Nigeria is concerned, where the accessibility, availability and usage of technology are not prevalent in education.Apart from the cost of accessing online teaching, many other factors such as network issues, poor power supply, distractions, poor digital skills, inaccessibility and availability issues can also hinder smooth study from home.The issue of unequal access to technology pose a major threat, thus, prolonged school closures could deprive millions of students' access to education particularly those in rural areas and people with special needs.The challenges imposed by COVID-19 could be transformed into an opportunity by learners to advance their problem solving skills and digital capabilities.

METHODOLOGY
Descriptive survey research design was used for the study.The population of this study consists of students in Oyo state.The study was carried out in secondary schools in Oyo state, Nigeria.Multistage random sampling technique was used in data collection.Six private and public secondary schools were randomly selected.From each school, twenty-five students were randomly selected making a total of one hundred and fifty (150) respondents.Structured questionnaire was adopted for the collection of the data.150 questionnaires were filled and reverted.Data were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistical tools.Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the response of the respondents and regression analysis was used to test the significant relationship between the variables.

Research question 1:
To what extent is online teaching effective among secondary school students in Nigeria?  1 showed that higher percentage 65 (43.3%)% of the respondents said that there is good network connection in their environments.Most of the students does not use devices that supports online teaching as 38.0%disagree to the opinion and 15.3% strongly disagree to it.The result further revealed that there is no enough internet subscription on the mobile devices of the students.Majority of the students said that classroom teaching is more quality and their schools did not have provisions for online teaching as 51.3% and 44.7% opined respectively.From the analysis of the result, it can be observed that online teaching is not that effective in the study area.This support the study of Quentin (2014), that school closure is highly provocative, besides could require spillover effects on numerous of students in receiving schools.This disruption can affect the quality of teaching and learning and academic achievement particularly for students with special needs or those with learning difficulties that often requires more physical attention and guidance from the teachers.Most schools are not prepared for online teaching and the sudden COVID-19 outbreak does not give secondary school managements time to train and equip themselves with necessary facilities, thus limiting the effectiveness of online teaching.Research question 2: What are the psychosocial effects of COVID-19 outbreak on secondary school students in Nigeria?Table 2 showed that higher number of the respondents strongly agreed, 31 (20.7%) agreed and 58 (38.7%) respectively that the outbreak of COVID-19 caused total blackout to teaching and learning in their schools.Majority (40.7%) of the respondents said that the issue of teaching in their schools turned hopeless during the outbreak.46% of the respondents said that outbreak of COVID-19 imposed more stress on teaching and learning, while half of the respondents said that studying became more difficult, since students cannot gather to enlighten one another.Majority of the respondents 73 (48.7) said that motivation towards learning among students decreased due to fear of the outbreak COVID-19.It can be observed that there are many psychosocial effects of COVID-19 outbreak on secondary school students in Nigeria.This is in line with the speech altered by Andrey Azoulay cited by VOA News (2020) in which he warned that because of COCID-19, the global scale and speed of the educational interference became incomparable which could loom educational right if persisted.

Test of Hypothesis
Hypothesis: There is no significant relationship between psychosocial effects of COVID-19 pandemic and online teaching of secondary schools in Nigeria 2020), the COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly every country on the planet.The pandemic has led to a total lockdown all around the world and Nigeria is not excluded.COVID-19 presents itself as an existential threats and challenges the global community economically, medically and socially (Mirza, Zaitoon, Abeer and Umme 2020) jobs were also affected; many teacher/lecturers risks pay cuts or even disengagement from work during unscheduled school closures.Some of the negative effects of school closures due to COVID-19 pandemic are as follows: Evolving indication displays that at the same time the COVID-19 pandemic had a destructive effect on the psychological health and comfort of the overall populace.Online teaching, distance and continue education have become a panacea for this unprecedented global pandemic, despite the challenges posed to both educators and the learners (Pokhrel and Chhetri 2021).With the assistance of technology strategies, online teaching is a general concept for teaching and learning.Accessible internet networks, software knowledge, digital services, accessibility to technology are factors that can enhance successful online teaching.Platforms of online teaching could take full advantage of bridging educational breaches by decreasing the rate of global illiteracy proportion because of the enormous mobile and internet technologies infiltration across the globe.Various online teaching platforms erupted during the COVID-19 pandemic which expedites online teaching especially during the COVID-19 outbursts.

Table 1 :
Extent to which online teaching is effective

Table 2 :
Psychosocial effect of COVID-19 outbreak on secondary school students

Table 2 :
Relationship between psychosocial effect of COVID-19 pandemic and online teaching of secondary school students in Nigeria