Students Dread Data Cost As Universities Adopt E-Learning

After spending eight months at home as a result of the lockdown triggered by the outbreak of COVID-19 and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike,  the announcement of the resumption date for academic activities by several institutions seems to have excited students who were tired of staying out of school and are eager to graduate from the higher institution.

The Univerisity of Lagos had earlier released their revised academic calendar for the first semester of 2019/2020 as released, the semester is expected to be completed at the beginning of April 2021.

READ ALSO: UNILAG To Resume Academic Activities Jan 25

The lectures which have been fixed to run for six weeks will be held online in the heat of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

While students are very excited about the resumption of academic activities, they express worries as to how much they will be spending on data for the sake of learning.

Speaking with AllNews was Ademola Ogunyemi a final year chemistry student of UNILAG who expressed his excitement at the news of the resumption of the higher institution of learning.

While Ogunyemi was sceptical about how the institution will go about some courses that need to run practicals, he stated that the outbreak of COVID-19 had brought about the need for Nigeria government to develop means of learning that will not restrict the students to the confines of a classroom.

Further expressing worries at the rate at which service providers consumes data, Ogunyemi said:

"I'm excited to hear that our school is resuming. For me, it is a step in the right direction.

"I'm however worried at the rate at which network providers consumes data nowadays; I fear that five thousand naira worth of data will not be enough for me to attend online classes, but I want to graduate," he said.

Also speaking with AllNews was Tamara Duoye, a 200 level History and strategic studies who stated that the adoption of online classes was a step in the right direction.

According to her, it was very wrong for students to be out of school for as long as eight months.

"Asking schools to resume is the right thing to do, we are far behind schedule. I'm supposed to be in year 3 currently, but I've spent eight months at home.

"I just hope that this online class works because I'm thinking of network problems and the cost of data too," she said.

Also, Paul Agada, the president of Mass Communication Student Association of UNILAG who spoke with AllNews, stated that the development was an opportunity for the government-owned institutions to join the conversation around the new normal.

Agada who pointed out that the government-owned universities adopted the new means of teaching and leaning late said:

"I'm excited, this shouldn't even be a major topic because we've seen private schools in Nigeria conduct online lectures.

"My fear is the preparedness of the institution to handle this because their server was usually poor during hostel balloting and election periods, I'm hoping they've improved.

"Also, for students who can't afford the basic tools for online lectures, I'm hoping that the school has alternative plans for them." 

A 300 level political science student of UNILAG Aniekan Benson who spoke to AllNews about the University's decision to adopt online means of learning, lamented that she does not know how she will cope with the new directives.

Miss Benson who raised questions as to the cost of data asked who will be paying for the data that will be consumed in the cause of the online class.

"Nobody to share knowledge with, People will feel uninterested, some students will be sleeping on the phone, and some lecturers will teach out of point," Benson said.

In response to the current data concerns, internet service providers in Nigeria are serving data bundles tailored to the needs of students. It is yet to be clear though if what the service providers describe as "student package" would serve its purpose in being effective and cheap.