Hybrid systems of social work education in the midst of COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 onslaught shook the entire world to its foundations. The reason for this could be attributed to the lockdown which threw the globe into a static state. The lockdowns which were holistic impacted all aspects of human existence, the educational sector inclusive. This hiatus was highly detrimental to social work education which risked being truncated especially in the Global South. It is this occurrence that has necessitated the carrying out of this study whose crux is hinged on evaluating the state of social work education in the Global South during the COVID-19 induced lockdowns with a view to identifying challenges experienced and proffering mitigative strategies to be deployed in the event of such eruptions. While we allude to the fact that the closure of schools was a worldwide occurrence, states in the Global South seemed worst hit largely due to the prevailing digital divide that subsisted in that clime as preliminary studies revealed that most students could not take advantage of the interventionist programmes floated during the period because of digital poverty, weak internet infrastructure among other encumbrances. It is on the strength of these findings that we posit that a digital emergency be declared in schools offering social work education in this region to put such institutions in good stead to handle similar eventualities. This aside, the government must forge synergies with private institutions to provide digital capacity for all schools. Qualitatively driven, the work consults book chapters, journal articles, policy briefs, and monographs among other secondary data sources to unearth the embedded issues in the discourse.