Education and COVID-19: Facts, insights and vital lessons

COVID-19, a severe and fatal human respiratory ailment caused by Severe Acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The purpose of the paper was to explore the scientific findings regarding SARS-CoV-2, its epidemiology and impact to the education system. The study was a documentary analysis of virtual documents stored electronically for access through the internet, text books, archival repositories as well as encyclopedia. The key findings indicated that genomic features of the virus demonstrated close phylogenic relationships with other viruses important to human illnesses. This disapproved a public argument that the virus was a laboratory construct. Further the study demonstrated that the transmission of the virus was chiefly exponential resulting to rapid outbreak of the ailment throughout China and other parts of the habitable world. The containment measure adopted by governments and states was largely lockdown of operations in many sectors of the economy, including education. By highlighting facts and insights on interventions adopted globally, the paper was able to provide a deeper understanding of COVID-19 within an educational context. The lessons gathered from the period of the epidemic are highlighted and can be useful to educationists when handling an epidemic in the future.