By Safwan Abubakar
On a sweltering afternoon, the scorching sun beat down on Jabiru Sani Koli, a final-year student of Curriculum Studies. Sweat dripped from his hair, trickling down his jawline like rivulets of water.
Jabir struggled to connect to his online class, but the poor network made it almost impossible. Frustration set in as sweat dripped down his jawline, his chest becoming wet. When the connection finally went through, he realized he has missed something— his subscription has finished. That was when he sat and rethink that the money he had could not sustain him for subscription—was attendance being called, or had the lesson already begun? He had no idea.
“Online Class nowadays is a serious issue since the issue of the Data Hike. It has been a problem since then, especially for me.
“ It is a simple things If a lecturer is communicating with his students from his own comfort, as anytime can be fixed for such class. But to us students, it’s another thing— it’s not a simple option for us in terms of understanding, High data proce, and the network issue in the university community.
“ I think the online class is not a good initiative, as it deprives some of us who is battling with network problems, and cannot afford the huge data price,” Jabir lamented.
New Tarrifs
According to a report published by the Guardian, Nigeria’s telecoms sector implemented a new tariff, with a 50% price hike approved by the Federal Government. This change comes almost 12 years after the last price increase. MTN subscribers were the first to feel the effects, with data subscriptions and SMS prices rising significantly.
The revised data prices from MTN show substantial increases across various plans. For instance, the 1.8GB monthly plan now costs ₦1,500, up from ₦1,000. The 20GB plan has increased to ₦7,500 from ₦5,500, while the 15GB plan now costs ₦6,500, a rise from ₦4,500. Some plans have seen even steeper hikes, such as the 15GB/week plan, which has risen by 200% from ₦2,000 to ₦6,000. Larger data bundles have also been affected, with the 1.5 terabyte 90-day plan increasing from ₦150,000 to ₦240,000, and the 600GB 90-day plan now priced at ₦120,000, up from ₦75,000.
Impact on Students’ Academic Performance
Victory Haruna Oyizemedi, a 300-level Literature student, expressed her distress regarding online lectures. For her, she had never completed an online class as a result of the unaffordable data and the poor network. “Even when I manage to join, I miss crucial points due to connection issues.
“This has affected my results badly, even though I still passed,, but I believe it was only by God’s grace. I don’t know about others, but online classes made my academic journey harder,” she added.
Shamsudeen Abubakar, a final-year student of Educational Foundations, also echoed Victory’s sentiment that if something is called a learning, it shouldn’t have a negative impact on students—it showing be positive.
Shamsudeen also noted that many students attend online classes just for attendance purposes rather than for actual learning
“Most students, including myself, just turn on the data, join the class, and then do other things like cooking or chatting. We are just there for attendance,” he admitted.
To a student like Issah Nah Hauwwa, a 300-level student of English and literatry education, attending an online class has become more difficult for her since she lost her phone.
“It’s been difficult for me to attend classes this semester because I don’t have a phone anymore,” she said.”I have to depend on my coursemates, and sometimes they use earphones, or I can’t even find them when I need to join the class.”
Admitting that online classes cannot be completely cancelled, Hauwa suggested that it be reduced, because students are the ones who suffer the consequences.