The management of the University of Ibadan has adopted online classes for the rest of the second semester due to several COVID-19 cases recorded on UI and UCH campuses.

“With the daily rising cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19 and several cases within the main campus and the College of Medicine/UCH campuses, the ERTC considered a proposal of blended teaching for the second semester in the university,” said the university’s registrar, Olubunmi Faluyi. “The blended learning model should be officially decided in terms, either of availability of sections of the student population for online or physical encounters or the categorisation of courses as online or physical.”

She added that this “neutralises” the “choice of location or keeps all students, in principle, in physical presence within and/or around the campus.”

The registrar was quoted in a statement by the school.

“It is clear that going fully online or adopting a blended approach to teaching is one of the steps to take to ensure the safety of all staff and students, given the increasing rate of infections being experienced in Nigeria and on our campus,” the registrar further explained. “Management commends all departments engaging in virtual/blended teaching since the commencement of the 2020/2021 session. All departments are urged to immediately take advantage of existing arrangements and commence virtual/blending teaching.”

She reasoned that caution and proactive actions were necessary to review teaching and learning mode in the second semester and provide a safe way to undertake “pedagogical activities on Nigerian university campuses.”

She noted that the institution’s management decried the poor compliance with COVID-19 protocols by the “entire university community” and emphasised the need to ensure strict compliance through the university’s COVID-19 committee.

“If the situation worsens on campus, full online engagement should be mounted for all courses as was done in the first semester,” warned the registrar.

Ms Faluyi also disclosed that arrangements were ongoing to make vaccines available for all staff and students as soon as possible.

(NAN)