CHALLENGES OF VIRTUAL LEARNING AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS IN KWARA STATE

The outbreak of COVID-19 altered the narrative whereby significant numbers of university in the country are now practicing virtual learning. Against this background, the study investigated challenges of virtual learning among primary school pre-service teachers in Kwara state. Descriptive research design of survey type was adopted in this study with a population of 911 childhood education undergraduates out of which multistage sampling technique was employed to select 455 undergraduates from the population as respondents for the study. A researcher-deigned questionnaire was used for data collection. The instrument was adjudged reliable with a score of ?=0.80. The data collected were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of frequency, percentage, range, mean, standard deviation, independent t-test. The findings of the study revealed that the challenges experienced by primary school pre-service teachers include: high cost of internet, inadequacy of electricity supply, poor network, delayed visualization of messages communicated on platform, among others. There is no significant difference in the challenges of virtual learning among childhood education undergraduates on the basis of gender; but there is a significant difference on the basis of school proprietorship in Kwara state. Conclusion was raised that, education stakeholders in Nigeria should see virtual learning as a future of the education system of the country.