With the coronavirus spreading rapidly across the world, countries have taken rapid and decisive actions to shut down schools, colleges and universities to contain the virus and ease the spread of the pandemic. All kinds of assessments have been postponed or cancelled. Board exams, GCE, GCSE, Cambridge at the school and college level, and university exams are suspended; even standardized tests like GMAT, GRE, SATs, ACT remain suspended leaving the future of millions of students uncertain.
This Covid-19 crisis has actually created a new norm for the educators and education sector globally, revolutionising the online learning landscape and digitalisation. Educators around the world are coming up with new solutions for education; a much-needed innovation. Large-scale, national efforts to utilise technology in support of remote learning, distance education and online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic are emerging and evolving quickly.
Developed countries such as China, US, Japan have embraced the change of "learning anywhere, anytime" concept even faster with 5G technology available. Traditional in-person classroom learning is being complemented with new learning modalities -- from live broadcasts to virtual reality experiences. In higher education, many universities and colleges are replacing traditional examinations with online assessment tools. This is a new area for both educators and students.
In Bangladesh, it has been more than 45 days of public holidays and all educational institutions-- schools, colleges and universities are closed until Eid-ul-Fitr. While some of the private educational institutions have moved to online learning through apps, podcasts or live classes, majority of them are still waiting. HSC exams are postponed; university exams are postponed or cancelled. Meanwhile, the teaching is moving online in a handful of institutions at different levels, on an untested and unprecedented scale.
At the government school level, the country's Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) began broadcasting pre-recorded secondary level school lessons with the help of government agency Access to Information (a2i) to help the school children continue their learning during the pandemic. While this might be as a stop gap or temporary solutions during the pandemic, but eventually, these interruptions will not just be a short-term issue, but might also have long-term consequences for the affected students.
The government should think about integrating classroom modes with e-learning modes to build a long term unified learning system. The biggest challenge would be to seamlessly integrate e-learning into the national education system of Bangladesh. The government along with the higher educational institutions need to strategise the immediate impact and probable innovative solutions to continue learning in the long run.
A number of emerging economies have been seen forming coalitions and consortiums with different stakeholders including government, ICT ministry, private sector, technology providers, telecom network operators, publishers and education professionals to utilise digital platforms as a temporary solution to the crisis. In countries like Bangladesh, this could potentially be a far-reaching trend to future education. In fact, according to the world economic forum, developing countries like Bangladesh need a resilient education system in times of uncertainties and crisis like this.
While discussing probable solutions, Khaled Mahmud, associate professor of IBA suggested: "To spread online education nationwide Bangladesh government has to ensure access to the internet at root level. Union digital centres (UDCs), successfully established in all the unions of Bangladesh by a2i a couple of years back, can play a vital role by acting as internet service providers (ISPs) to equip the students in all the corners of Bangladesh with internet."
While virtual classes on personal laptops or tablets might be a usual thing in developed countries like USA or Hong Kong, but in Bangladesh, students primarily rely on lessons and assignments sent via emails. Besides, the quality of learning is also dependent on the level and access of digital platform and internet connection, cost of the services and data plans. This might potentially affect or widen the gap of education and learning quality among regions or various socioeconomic classes within the country and institutions.
The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the higher education as well, which is a critical determinant of a country's economic future. In Bangladesh, at the university level, different standalone solutions are being tested at both private and public universities. The University of Dhaka, the largest public university in the country, is shut down till Eid-ul-Fitr. Though moving to online classes are being considered and have already started on a limited scale at some public and private universities, the higher educational institutions need to comprehensively chalk out a strategy for the continuation of the students' learning.
While conversing with the Dean of the Business Faculty, University of Dhaka, Professor Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam said the authorities of the University of Dhaka has decided to extend the holiday till Eid-ul-Fitr and if needed might even extend further to Eid-ul-Azha. The gap in studies can be made up curtailing the summer vacation. Meanwhile, departments and institutes might take online classes through zoom and email or upload the class materials and engage the students for the time being so that when the university is ready to open, only the exams will be conducted.
In developed countries like USA or UK, the universities already have planned their immediate and long-term strategies predicting the impact of Covid-19. There are signs suggesting that it could have a lasting impact on the course of learning and thus making a structural change in the education process.
Dr Javed Siddiqui, senior lecturer and director of Masters of Finance and Accounting Programme, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK, he mentioned: "There are short term and long-term implications of Covid-19 and universities are taking measures and actions accordingly. The immediate impact will be during September admission. It is assumed that most students will be unwilling to come back to UK or may be barred from their own countries, so we have planned a flexible start, students can choose to come back, or get admitted and attend online lectures from their home country. However, they would probably have to physically sit for the January 2021 final exams. Thus, the university has to move all lectures online besides classroom lectures. In addition to this, the assessments are going to change, for instance, group presentations in the form of assessments are going to be difficult, so we are planning out different assessments."
While talking about international education, international students will also feel the pinch. A good number of Bangladeshi students aspire to study in universities in USA or UK. Many such students have now been barred from leaving their countries due to travel bans.
"Currently, there is a huge uncertainty - both in short term and long term - about the future of international students. For example, the current students, whose visas are about to expire are uncertain about their visa extensions; the future students are not sure about when they can apply for visas since all embassies and consulates are closed for indefinite period," mentioned Khonika Gope, a PhD research student at the University of Stanford and assistant professor at IBA of Dhaka University.
"Besides, the fear of remote university experience will be disheartening as aspiring students applying to study abroad with the hope of attending classes on campus and immersing in intercultural exchanges," said Shameel, an IBA alumni whose admission for master’s is completed in INSEAD in France, but now at the outbreak of the pandemic, everything seems uncertain.
In addition to the above issues, the majority of the Bangladeshi students go abroad for graduate studies particularly in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) field. Many of these programmes are supported and funded by industries. Now, with the pandemic outbreak and the resulting imminent recession to be followed, many of these programmes might shut down due to lack of funding, mentioned Ms Gope.
Again, due to the financial losses of the universities, the scholarships to the developing countries' students will probably substantially reduce. This will definitely make it difficult for a lot of students of the South Asian countries including Bangladesh to be able to pursue their higher education in their aspired institutions. While different countries are coming up with stop gap solutions, but eventually in the long term there might a paradigm shift in the fundamental of education.
Dr Melita Mehjabeen is associate professor at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka.
She can be reached at melitamehjabeen@gmail.com