Students in Rivers State have pleaded with the state government to make both virtual and Smart classrooms permanent and available to all schools in the state, to enable them get acclimatized to e-learning system.
The students who spoke at random with The Tide in Port Harcourt, yesterday, said many of them were taken aback when the virtual learning system was introduced during the Coronavirus pandemic holidays.
An undergraduate of one of the universities in the state who gave her name as Nnendaah Igwe, said that she was swept off her feet at the early stage of the virtual learning system.
Igwe said that the one month e-learning system was like a dream to her due to lack of proper foundation.
According to her, the one month e-learning would have been a better experience if there had been virtual or smart class system in the school earlier.
In his view, an engineering student, Geo Amadi, said virtual learning should be made permanent in the school calendar to enable students get used to e-learning system.
He recalled the terrible experience many students had when e-learning was introduced as an alternative learning system during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Amadi said the e-learning system exposed the analogue lifestyle of both lecturers and students, many of whom, he said, were unable to attend the online class during the COVID-19.
To Ejima Omah, a secondary school student, e-learning should be made a compulsory subject that would run from junior to senior secondary.
This, he said, would not only place the students on better footings, but would also make them income earners while in school.
Omah noted that since most activities in the world are now digital, those with sound virtual knowledge stand a better chance to generate income.
Others who were in support of the permanent virtual class admitted that its introduction as an option during the Coronavirus pandemic holidays was beneficial.
A lecturer at the Ignatius Ajuru University Of Education, who pleaded anonymity, said the virtual class would only scale through if the drivers of the system would first get lecturers trained in the system.
He pointed out that it would be difficult for one to give what he lacked, admitting that most lecturers including himself are still analogue.

By: King Onunwor