Background: Multiple measures introduced early to restrict COVID-19 have dramatically impacted the teaching of medical and pharmacy students, exacerbated by the lack of infrastructure and experience with e-learning at the start of the pandemic. In addition, the costs and reliability of the Internet across Africa pose challenges alongside undertaking clinical teaching and practical programmes. Consequently, there is a need to understand the many challenges and how these were addressed, given increasingly complex patients, to provide future direction. Method: An exploratory study was conducted among senior-level medical and pharmacy educators across Africa, addressing four key questions, including the challenges resulting from the pandemic and how these were dealt with. Results: Staff and student members faced multiple challenges initially, including adapting to online learning. In addition, concerns with the lack of equipment (especially among disadvantaged students), the costs of Internet bundles, and how to conduct practicals and clinical teaching. Multiple activities were undertaken to address these challenges. These included training sessions, developing innovative approaches to teaching, and seeking ways to reduce Internet costs. Robust approaches to practicals, clinical teaching, and assessments have been developed. Conclusions: Appreciable difficulties to teaching arising from the pandemic are being addressed across Africa. Research is ongoing to improve education and assessments.

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to suspension of pharmacy education in resource-limited settings, negatively impacting pharmaceutical workforce outputs. Aims: To identify the elements of a COVID-19 resilient pharmacy education programme in Namibia and its grassroots impact on the pharmaceutical workforce and systems strengthening. Methods: An evaluation of COVID-19 resilience of the Diploma in Pharmacy programme in Namibia. Data on elements for resilience and outcomes were collected; qualitative and quantitative data were analysed descriptively. Results: The evaluation identified ten key elements for successful implementation of a COVID-19 resilient pharmacy education programme. The integration of quality improvement projects in the workplace strengthened pharmaceutical systems and workforce capacity in areas of rational medicine use and supply management of medicines. Conclusions: Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted pharmacy education, this paper presents ten elements that, when implemented, may improve the resilience and minimise unforeseen academic interruptions during pandemics.

Background: COVID-19, a global pandemic, has disrupted pharmacy education in Africa, due to unpreparedness to migrate to online Learning. Aim: To assess outcomes and challenges facing migration to online pharmacy education. Methods: An evaluation of implementation of online learning in the Bachelor of Pharmacy programme in Namibia using key informant feedback. The outcomes were outputs and challenges facing migration to online learning, and its impact on pass rates and scores. Results: The pooled mean score was higher in 2020 (66.2%), compared to 2019 (63.4%) and 2018 (62.1%), (p=0.076). A variety of platforms were used as alternatives or supplements to Moodle. The main challenges included inequalities in internet connectivity, monitoring and quality assurance, implementation of experiential learning, and reliability of online assessment. Conclusions: Whilst migration to online learning did not impact on pass rates, there is need for policies and systems to address programmatic challenges to eliminate inequalities in online pharmacy education.