POST COVID-19 PANDEMIC, STUDENTS' ATTITUDE TOWARDS ONLINE BIOLOGY INSTRUCTIONS IN PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract Educational institutions across the world were closed down due to COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, thus leading to sudden shift to online learning. This study assessed post COVID-19 pandemic students’ attitude toward online Biology instructions in private secondary schools in Enugu State, Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was employed, and the sample comprised 447 SSIII students (206 boys, 241 girls) from eleven private secondary schools in Enugu State. Data were collected using structured questionnaire with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.84, indicating high reliability. The data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA), by SPSS version 20. The findings revealed positive perceptions of online learning with no significant gender differences. The study also showed that the private secondary school students have positive attitudes to online Biology instructions amid COVID-19 pandemic, but with no significant gender differences. However, the result revealed that varied challenges were experienced by the students in the application of the online Biology insructions during sit-at-home due to COVID-19 panmic. The study recommends integrating hybrid/blended learning into school curricula as well as encouraging daily online platform use by teachers and students, and providing infrastructure support to enhance learning effectiveness to take of disruption of academic activities in future disease pandemic. By addressing these challenges, online learning can be made more effective and productive for students, even with or without disease pandemic.