COVID-19 and Online Courses in Niger: Investigating the Causes of a Failure

To cope with the COVID-19 pandemic on a global scale, the containment measures and the closure of schools and universities have spawned the use of diversified forms of large-scale distance education in order to ensure pedagogical continuity in new and improvised conditions. In Niger, the Ministry of Higher Education is offering an initiative as an alternative: organizing lessons through social networks WhatsApp and Telegram. These offers did not allow any activity to emerge until the reopening of schools and universities on June 1, 2020. This article analyzes the conditions of the offer and the reasons for the failure to learn lessons and anticipate for promising offers in future crises.