By Shaila Ahmed and Kaspia Sultana

ABSTRACT

Online classes are in high demand these days, since there are few opportunities to discover alternatives to online classes in these unusual days created by the global corona epidemic. The study had a qualitative approach, and data were gathered through a mini-interview with students from private institutions studying in various areas using Microsoft Form. The study’s findings show that, while online education faces several challenges for its two main stakeholders, students and teachers, addressing all of these challenges carefully has the potential to create a positive atmosphere in the field of education as an alternative teaching learning method, resulting in positive outcomes in all aspects.

INTRODUCTION

COVID-19, a highly contagious illness, has altered the world’s normal picture. Millions of fatalities are being caused by the severe likelihood of spreading among persons during intimate contact. This pandemic had a significant influence on socioeconomic and many other basic variables all around the world, including schooling. COVID-19 has resulted in academic shutdown in Bangladesh in March 2020. The closure of academic institutions had a significant impact on the majority of the student population as well as other persons working in the education industry. Many nations throughout the world have begun online education systems and are continuing to do so in order to close the gap. Online education via social media is presently the greatest feasible substitute for face-to-face learning. Platforms such as Facebook, Zoom, Google Classroom, and Google Meet are examples of how academic institutions are attempting to engage with students. For a country like ours, online learning is difficult. It is a significant difficulty for both students and teachers. Changes to the educational system, such as technology assistance, administrative planning, and keeping an online timetable and data, are all novel to instructors. In this respect, in addition to preparing lectures, they must have adequate skills and understanding on how to use technological qualities. The government has taken certain steps to assist educational institutions in continuing to operate during the lock-down. However, most rural regions, as well as certain undeserved metropolitan areas, are at a disadvantage in terms of continuing this process. Distance concerns, inadequate technical help, a lack of internet connection, and financial insecurity plague both teachers and students from such countries. There are several advantages and disadvantages to distance learning. Many things are seen as impediments to e-learning. A recent survey in India discovered both favorable and negative attitudes toward online education. Many research have been undertaken to describe the conditions of students who are enrolled in online education, but comparably few studies have been conducted to describe the circumstances of teachers who are enrolled in online education. The major goal of this study during COVID-19 lock-down is to determine how teachers help their students decrease the educational gap, their impressions of online education, and challenges associated with e-learning.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Bangladesh’s reaction to COVID-19 was, in general, haphazard, uncoordinated, and chaotic. Responses pointing to the educational department during the outbreak conveniently kept up with that disorder. The State issued a statewide lock-down on March 26, 2020, under the guise of a “general holiday,” closing down all educational institutions, including schools, colleges, and universities, among others. After that, the lock-down was lifted conditionally on May 31, 2020, after more than two months. The country’s perplexed calculations are difficult to observe or comprehend. The use of lock-down is being chastised in conditions when social distance is impossible to achieve in a densely populated nation like Bangladesh. However, the lock-down remains in place for educational institutions until September, fostering the notion that, unlike other important sectors that must open gradually, educational institutions can wait. Among these calculations, the country chose distant knowledge, which is a reality pervading the country’s education system at the time of writing. Figure 2 depicts the percentage of people who participate in distance learning.

STUDY METHODOLOGY

Selection of the study area

This study must be under a Private Universities there for this study is going to be under AIUB, BRAC and NSU. It should be mentioned that this study needs general students who are currently having their classes on online. Because of that the study analyzer must specify one of the running class students. 

Sampling 

Sampling is the plan of gating information from the students. Minimum 55 student must participate. The analyzer must make a from. Which should contain some Y/N question and a student opinion box. Then this report can have a good amount of information to moving on. It should de mention to the class that all the student has to participate to the poll and give a true opinion for having a proper sample of information.

Data Collection

Analyzers must collect the data from the given poll. This data are the main key points of this Online Education situation. The poll from will have a lot of information related to this topic. So there for this data must be collected very carefully. 

Data Processing and analysis

The collected data must be analyzed by the analyzer. Then they can feature this data by the chart system or other method. This data must calculate and make sure the percentage of student’s thoughts. These reports can be visualizing by graph or table. 

Findings

So far, we have accumulated data of 55 students and teachers. Most of them are Students and only few were teachers. From the given answer we see that most of the student do online class in Zoom, MS teams and Google meet. Most of the student and teacher discuss about problem of online class (70%) and very few student talk about advantage of online class (30%).

Figure 1: Student face problem in online classes.

In this pie chart we can see most of the student face Internet issue. Because of bad internet connection they cannot join online classes and sometimes they cannot give important exam. Very few of them have problem of Faulty Device.

DISCUSSION

Impact on Primary Education

Primary school students are 6 to 11 years old; all are in middle-childhood. The number of students is over 18 million. Due to social isolation, the majority of students experience mental anguish during this period. Poverty among lower-class people is increasing. Students’ Parents are becoming jobless; most of their monthly payments are decreasing (Fig. 4). Since during the COVID-19 epidemic, many private companies are giving less than 50% payment. As a result, the ability to buy nutritious food for their children is declining, and children are affecting various malnutrition diseases.

To maintain social distancing, they cannot mess with their friends and even cannot play, which is making them emotionally distressed. Middle childhood children typically become less attached to their parents (Fig. 3). According to children’s voices in the time of COVID-19, 91% of the children and young people reported feeling emotional distress and facing troubling experiences. In the case of children, mental illness remains secret because they cannot share their mental condition with others.

According to the Bangladesh Government’s statement, the number of street children in this country is more than 34 lakhs. Most of them deprived of various facilities (Fig. 2). However, there are several NGOs that provide free food and other facilities to educate them. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, their educational activities have postponed. Therefore, at a very young age, they may get involved in various criminal activities. 

Impact on Secondary School Students

According to the department of secondary school education, Bangladesh has more than twenty thousand high Schools. During the survey, we discussed with numerous high school students in our neighborhood ages of twelve to sixteen. 5% have no TV set in their house. 50% of students are going through horrible family regression. 25% are worried about getting admission to higher secondary college. Even though the government has started broadcasting lessons on television, it impossible to do so for many students as there is no TV in many houses. Recently Secondary School Certificate (SSC) passed students are going through anxiety because of postponed college admission. Since students are unable to start their college sessions, they are quite worried about their academic year being shortened. Many students are forcing to join multiple risky jobs like building construction, garment-sector, driving bus, auto-rickshaw and many more. Parents are forcing girls to marry at an early age.

Moreover, the early marriage rate in Bangladesh is on a high. During COVID-19, it is hard for the female students to maintain their hygiene. Hence, many of them are unable to use sanitary napkin due to the lack of money. Numerous female students are forcing to work as sex workers by the unfortunate economic circumstances and maintaining family needs.

Impact on Higher Secondary Students

In Bangladesh, there are 9081 intermediate colleges with a total enrollment of over 13 lac students. Although The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination was supposed to be held, it is postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. After completing the higher secondary level, students are admitted to different universities, and some go abroad for higher study. However, this being hampered by COVID-19. Now students are worried about their future. Students who can afford smart Gadgets and internet connection are getting addicted to Facebook, YouTube, and online games. We talked with many college students’ parents during the survey. Surprisingly found, 60% are incorporated in the mobile phone substantially. They cannot focus on their study well. Many of them do not even read a single word. Because most students waste their time watching TV and using social media, or sitting idly at home alone, this is highly concerning. Many students are not prepared to sit on the HSC examination because they have already dropped out of the study. Although the private higher secondary Institutions are engaging in online teaching, there are no online classes that have started in government schools yet. The analysis said that the significant number of sampled populations found online classes both useful and unnecessary as well. It creates confusion in decision making among students. Current study suspected that this misbalance of necessity might happen in the governing committee in various educational Institutions too. For example, Motijheel Ideal School and College, Cambrian School and College, Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, Wills Little Flower School, and College, and some more Institutions are taking online classes. Notably, only students from upper-class families get the opportunity to study in private schools (Fig. 4). Moreover, Bangladesh has the highest number of lower and middle-class families, and most of their children attend government schools.

College students are young and energetic. Right guidance and proper education can cultivate these young people’s creativity and talent, which will surely benefit our country. Unexpectedly, the effect of COVID-19 is disrupting everything at this moment.

Impact on University Students

Irregular attendances in online classes

According to the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh (UGC) & Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC), there are 155 public and private Universities in Bangladesh and 117 medical and dental colleges under these universities. More than ten lakhs students are studying at these Institutions. During the situation of the pandemic, all the Universities and Medical and Dental colleges are remaining closed since April 2020. Majority of the students have gone to their native villages and towns. Some institutions are taking online classes, but most of them left their electronic devices like laptops desktops in the university or college hostels. Biotechnology Enhancement and Development (Bio TED) has recently published an article in an English newspaper. From May 9 to May 11, they polled 2038 students from 42 public and private universities. Bio TED has found only 23% of the total students are doing the online class. There are many reasons that they are not attending online courses. Villages don’t provide broadband internet connection. A typical class can consume up to 300 megabytes of data, and if a student attends at least three sessions each day, he/she would require 1GB of data. However, due to the rising cost of internet bandwidth, many students find it difficult to purchase. Engineering and medical students are having huge problems. They are unable to complete their lab and practical lessons, which will have a negative impact on their career.

Remote area networking problems

The internet speed in the villages is the slowest. The entire attendant of the online class is 58.8 percent from private university 41.2 percent from public university. That means many of the public university students cannot afford to buy broadband internet. From the total candidate of online class from science 55%, humanities 12.1%, social science 11.2%, from business studies and other disciplines are 4.7% attending the online course. Bangladesh, according to The Daily Star, has the poorest data connection speed among 42 nations. Whereas Canada has 63 Mbps, we only have 7.8 Mbps. Even it was 9.2 Mbps beginning of February but at the finishing of March 7.2 Mbps. Most university students earn money by doing part-time tuition jobs. Many students lost their jobs with the closure of shops and restaurants. Numerous students’ parents became jobless or their business off due to the Coronavirus. Some private universities even pressure students to clear their semester fees. Students worried about how they will cope with the financial loss of COVID-19.

Accommodation and rent mismanagement

Since the universities are city-centric, the students from the small-town residents in several hostels near the university. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, they have moved back to their home, but all their belongings remained in the hostel. They also have not paid their monthly rent due to being at home for several months, which has resulted in hostel owners throwing away all the belongings of the students. According to a recent report in a newspaper, the hostel owner had thrown student’s laptops, clothes, certificates, and other items in the dustbin as they could not pay the rent for several months. Many universities have not started online classes yet, and students at those universities are very concerned about the possibility of session jam. Various universities are taking an online examination, which is not fruitful; students taking advantage of multiple misfortunes.

Mental health instabilities

Mental health and its significance during any pandemic of lockdown are quite important to maintain a sound environmental serenity. Some Bangladeshi students were discovered to be wasting their time on Facebook, TV, and web-series rather than concentrating on their schoolwork. Most of the time, students are engrossed in unnecessary gossips in many groups on Facebook and WhatsApp, which is threatening their future. Although the fresh graduates were supposed to enter the workplace, it is no longer possible due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Their poverty is also increasing rapidly, which is harming the country’s economy. One student from Daffodil International University suicide a few days ago due to this type of anxiety, depression, frustration, and family pressure, which is quite heartbreaking.

Impact on Bangladeshi Students Studying Abroad and the Students Willing to Study Overseas

The majority of overseas students prefer to take their studies on their home campus. Since the quality of online education is not sufficient, they are reluctant to take online courses. Many students pay their tuition fees or garnering pocket money by working in a different restaurant, super shop, university-centric job, or driving the taxi cab. However, in this situation, they have become jobless. Moreover, they have fallen in great trouble because most are unable to pay their semester fees. Because of this scenario, many are compelled to return to their native country without completing their degree. Many parents of students are unable to send money due to the salary cuts or the reduction of their salaries. Consequently, numerous students are going through disorientation. Since the practical classes for Engineering students are no longer to conduct, students worry that they will not be getting the experience they need to land their expected job.

On the other hand, the students who intend to study abroad have to cancel their plans. International routes have been closed since the beginning of the outbreak. Although there has been limited flight these days, countries have not made any decisions about international students yet. As a result, many of the students who had planned to pursue higher education abroad are frustrated by not being able to pursue education and achieve their desired goals.

We did a survey where different types of opinions came up:

• How Covid-19 has affected the student?

People are responses here is 27.8% Medium 11.1% Low 61.1% high.

• Which type of students have more problems with Covid-19?

Here are the different types of opinions of 66.7% both 16.7% University Student 11.1% Secondary Student.

• How reasonable do you think Covid-19 is to study online?

Here are the different types of opinions of 66.7% both 16.7% University Student 11.1% Secondary Student.

• Which type of student is being most affected by Covid-19?

Here are the different types of opinions of 33.3% town student 33.3% both 33.3% village student.

• Which class of students do you think is most affected by Covid-19?

People’s responses here is 50% middle class family and 50% high class family.

CONCLUSION

This paper has outlined multiple impacts of COVID-19 on the students in Bangladesh after considering their financial states accordingly. The inequality between students’ access to the internet and various gadgets has had a devastating effect on countless students amid theCOVID-19 outbreak. None of us knows exactly how long the COVID-19 epidemic will last. It’s creating a new world that we don’t know of yet, but the education sector and students must be resilient to adapt to new changes that the epidemic will bring. Researchers may come up with new ways to make universal education accessible to all students. This paper has not covered large scale statistical analysis on the impact of COVID-19 on the institutional education system and its associated students in Bangladesh. However, our study tried as much as possible to collect information, although it is not feasible for us to obtain a large amount of data during this epidemic.

*Shaila Ahmed is an Assistant Professor, Department of English in American International University Bangladesh (AIUB).

*Kaspia Sultana is an Assistant Professor, Department of English in American International University Bangladesh (AIUB).