A professor at the University of Ghana Business School has stated that online teaching and learning will become the new normal post-Covid-19.

Prof. Amponsah Tawiah said that students will get used to the online mode of studying rather than the traditional way of education because it has presented a lot of benefits to them as well as teachers.

According to him, education has been effective without much stress as a result of the introduction of online studies.

“When it comes to the field of education, we reckon that here in Ghana the online teaching and learning wasn’t something that we’re used to but currently, now that Covid-19 is here, the online mode of studying is something that we are all enjoying.

"And with this experience, we reckon that most institutions are putting themselves in readiness and I can tell you that post-Covid-19, the online teaching and online learning is going to become the new normal,” he told Roland Walker on the AM Show.

As the numbers of Covid-19 cases worldwide continue to hike without any hope of a cure for the pandemic, experts have advised that countries must “learn to live with the virus”

The World Health Organization (WHO) during an update to the world on the impact of Covid-19, advised that "countries must learn to live with Covid-19 because it has come to live with us.”

Ghana’s Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman Manu also at a Press briefing made similar comments, stating that “life must continue because Covid-19 must not deter us from living our lives”

As a result, countries including Ghana are finding ways to adjust to the virus. Countries are finding ways to open up sectors of their economies, while mitigating the effects of Covid-19 as a way of returning life to normalcy.

In line with this, the education sector, which is one of the largely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, because schools have been closed [as a way to cut the spread of the virus] has opted for online studies as a way to continue with its activities.

Professor Tawiah believes that this is a step in the right direction because online studies has presented much benefits which includes the fact that students have been more active with online studies, rather than the previous mode of studying that depended largely on physical presence.

According to him, students have been more engaging when it comes to academic work because they connect from the comfort of their homes, without going through much stress.

“Most institutions now have spent a lot of resources putting in place the infrastructure to support the online teaching and online learning and students are also getting themselves into it.

"And to be frank, especially with our executive students, we reckon that most of them now prefer even the online teaching and the online learning because they are able to really connect from the comfort of their homes,” he said.

“With this, they’re much more relaxed and now we see much more engagements on the part of students because now they are not in a hurry to come for the lectures and they are not looking at closing early. They are in the comfort of their homes, connecting with the lectures and things are going on so well.”