EFFECT OF COVID-19 ON

EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH
Course Name: Managerial Communication
Course Code: BUS 501

Submitted To, Submitted By,

Saptarshi Dhar The Team-A
Assistant Professor, 501 – S1 Fall 2020
Institute of Business
Administration,
Jahangirnagar University

NOVEMBER 13, 2020

 EFFECT OF COVID-19 ON
EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH

1
Date: November 13, 2020

Saptarshi Dhar
Assistant Professor,
Institute of Business Administration,
Jahangirnagar University

Subject: Submission of assignment on “Effect of Covid-19 on education in Bangladesh”

Dear Madam,
Here is the assignment that we assigned on the topic as per your instruction. The assignment has
been completed by the knowledge that we have gathered from the course “Managerial
Communication”.
We are thankful to all those persons who provided us important information and gave us valuable
advices. We would be happy if you read the report carefully and we will be trying to answer all
the questions that you have about the assignment.
We have tried our level best to complete this assignment meaningfully and correctly, as much as
possible. We do believe that our tiresome effort will help you to get ahead with this sort of venture.
In this case it will be meaningful to us. However, if you need any assistance in interpreting this
assignment please contact us without any kind of hesitation.
Thanking you.

Yours obediently,
The Team-A
Team Members:
Tanmoy Kumar Ghosh (ID: 202001083)
Md. Ibtesham Hossain (ID: 202001043)
Abul Hasnath Mohammad Rashed (ID: 202001016)
Contents
Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 4
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5
Background ................................................................................................................................. 5
Statement of Purpose................................................................................................................... 6
Significance and Scope ............................................................................................................... 6
Data and Methods........................................................................................................................ 6
Findings and Discussions ................................................................................................................ 7
Effect of Pandemic on Student Population ................................................................................. 7
Students are well aware of the coronavirus ............................................................................. 7
Observance of high level of hand hygiene among students .................................................... 7
Exhibition of fear apparent among the students ...................................................................... 7
Violence towards child during the lockdown .......................................................................... 8
Other activities of Students beside studies .............................................................................. 8
Education under question during the lockdown ...................................................................... 8
Reaching out to all students with alternative methods not yet ensured ................................... 8
Effect of Pandemic on Different Segment of Education ............................................................. 9
Primary and Secondary level of education .............................................................................. 9
Tertiary level of education ..................................................................................................... 10
Recommendations ......................................................................................................................... 12
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 13
Reference ...................................................................................................................................... 14

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Executive Summary
Since March 17, 2020, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, the Bangladesh government
decided to maintain physical distance and therefore declared a lockdown for all kinds of
educational institutions, offices, restaurants and so on. Following the situation, the students are
facing ‘new normal’ life after the closure of all educational institutions. The government as well
as many non-profitable organizations had campaigns to raise awareness among the students. The
students were advised to wear masks, clean their hands with soap and hand-sanitizer, and maintain
physical distance. But there was an alarming communication gap between most of the citizens who
lived in rural areas.
Private universities as well as some public universities and other educational institutes had
conducted education through online. Social media platforms - facebook live streaming, and other
online video streaming platforms - zoom, google meet etc. are becoming more popular among the
students. Although some other issues like having unfair activities during online education is one
of the great barriers to properly assessing the students. Most students do not have proper
economical support to buy extra electronic devices to continue education and most of them are not
aware of how to use them. Besides many teachers are not familiar with online medium are not
comfortable in using them for online education.
Introduction

Background
WHO confirmed that COVID-19 first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. WHO had
announced global emergency on January 30, 2020 and called COVID-19 as pandemic on March
11, 2020 [1]. The COVID-19 pandemic is not limited to national borders; it has affected people
regardless of nationality, level of education or income or gender [5]. This outbreak has damaged
the global healthcare system as well as human life. To reduce the spread of this infection,
worldwide national leaders have taken necessary steps like increasing health facilities, closing of
educational institutes, offices, markets, restaurants, museums etc., restricting physical gathering,
traveling [2].
The COVID-19 pandemic has created the largest disturbance of education systems in history,
affecting nearly 1.6 billion students in more than 190 countries. Closures of schools and other
learning spaces have impacted 94%of the world’s student population, up to 99% in low and lower-
middle income countries [4]. The crisis is creating a great difference in pre-existing education by
reducing opportunities for many children, youth and adults – those living in poor or rural areas,
girls, refugees, persons with disabilities and forcibly displaced persons – to continue their learning.
On March 8, 2020 Bangladesh diagnosed the first case of COVID-19. The government of
Bangladesh takes steps to shut down all the educational institutions from March 17, 2020 to
prevent the spread of COVID-19 among students. The government has extended the lockdown
deadlines many times. There are 38.6 million students in Bangladesh. Among them, 3.6 million
students are in pre-primary, 18 million in primary, 13 million in secondary, and 4 million in tertiary
education. The government started distant learning through Sangsad TV to continue the teaching
and learning during the lockdown period from March 29, 2020. This initiative was for the students
of class six to ten and gradually for the students of primary schools and madrasas. Some schools
in urban areas, especially the English medium schools, initiated online classes using Facebook live
streaming and other video conference apps [6].

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Statement of Purpose
The purpose of this report is to illustrate the effect of COVID-19 on the education sector in
Bangladesh. This report will include economic data and other data. This research is important to
understand the problems in the education sector due to this pandemic situation. This report also
focuses on how Bangladesh is trying to survive through distance learning in the lockdown period.
This report will not explain how Bangladesh can handle this long-term study gap effect for the
students, which requires additional research.

Significance and Scope

This report is made to understand the situation that Bangladesh is facing due long-term lockdown
to education, what steps the government is taking to continue education from distance learning.
But this research is limited to the COVID-19 effect in the education system only. We tried to cover
the COVID-19 effects in the education system. There is still scope to research on how Bangladesh
can solve this distance learning in an efficient manner so that students can have physical, mental
and other support.

Data and Methods

We have collected all our secondary data through research papers and other reports published on
the web. We tried to observe the situation that Bangladesh is ongoing by partially opening the
government and non-government organizations except all educational institutions.
Findings and Discussions

Effect of Pandemic on Student Population

Students are well aware of the coronavirus

Studies and surveys conducted suggests that students are very consciousness and well informed
about the virus and the pandemic situation. Social media, news (TV channels and newspaper),
teachers, parents, local announcements, and other medium of communication played a vital role
in disseminating the information among students.

Observance of high level of hand hygiene among students

It is observed that a high level of good hand hygiene is maintained by the students. Students are
aware of the importance of social distancing and the use of soap or handwash or sanitizer and
majority of them remains at home most of the time. Despite all of this a there are still a significant
chunk of the student population are careless and do not maintain any caution at all to keep
themselves protected from infection. (Brown Mikkelsen, 1997)
The tendency and frequency of going outside are more evident among male students than female
students. It is also notable that students living in rural areas have the tendency to go outside than
those who live in urban areas

Exhibition of fear apparent among the students

Due to the rapid spread of the corona virus and the defenselessness caused by it, students are facing
a hard time accepting the fact. Despite positive messages from parents and teachers, the students
are in a panic state. (Boaler, 2015) Their knowledge about the severity caused by the infection
makes the students conscious fearful towards the pandemic. The panic has different kinds of
manifestations among the students. (Gulliver et al ,2015). Students are observed to have become
quiet and cranky. They are expressing unwillingness towards reading or playing, many gets scared
seeing outsiders and are reluctant to interact with people and many feels scared to stay alone at
home.

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Violence towards child during the lockdown
Numerous studies conducted shows evidence of harassment and violence against women and
children. (Ellsberg et al, 2015) Although, this phenomenon is existing and common in the context
of Bangladesh it has to some extent increased due to the impact of the pandemic. Students of urban
areas, madrasas and primary schools are more susceptible to violence than others. Majority of the
students faces psychological harassment mostly with handful cases of physical and sexual
harassment, confinement and forced labor. (Stanley et al, 2018). Students from less privileged
groups and those who are in families with financial constraints are major victims of torture or
harassment at home.

Other activities of Students beside studies

Students are engaged in various other activities in their day to day life. Most of the students assist
their parents in household chores. Many of students pass their time gossiping with family
members, friends, and relatives. Due to the digital age a huge portion of them also spend time on
the mobile phone, internet browsing, and online games. (McKnight et all, 2016) Interestingly, a
lot of students spend their time in creative activities or leisure pursuit such as reading storybooks,
painting, singing, making toys and keeping pets etc. as well.

Education under question during the lockdown

There has been an adverse effect on students during this pandemic as they have become more
reluctant and uninterested towards their studies. (Coolican, 2018) This is more evident among
students from rural areas, disabilities and those who are students of secondary schools. A survey
conducted provided shocking results that less than one third of the students were benefitted from
online studies or continued studies at home. The remaining either moderately studies or does not
study at all.

Reaching out to all students with alternative methods not yet ensured
There has been numerous Government initiative to broadcast classes through Sangshad TV and
many private schools have started conducting online classes amidst this pandemic. It was notable
that more than half of the student population does not participate the Sangshad classes with major
non participation comes from ethnic minorities, madrasa students, rural students and students with
disability. The main reason for such low participation is due to lack of logistics support
arrangements such as television, internet connection, electricity, cable-network connection etc.
Moreover, many students are not even aware of initiatives as well.
Though distant learning measures are adopted through television and internet, the effectiveness of
the procedure remains a burning question. According to the report of MICS 2019, television is
available in only 50.6 percent houses and there are around 4.1 percent of the households without
a single mobile phone. (Erigha, 2019) However, having a mobile phone is not sufficient since only
37.6 percent of the households have internet access at home.

Effect of Pandemic on Different Segment of Education

With the commencement of the Coronavirus Pandemic, the global education system has been
facing an unprecedented disruption. All around the world, students are or were momentarily out
of their respective educational institution due to temporary suspension due to the pandemic.
(Bansal et al, 2020). Bangladesh has been no exception to this. The government has imposed
lockdown since 26th March 2020 but even prior to that all educational institutions including
coaching centers were closed in 16th April 2020. The lockdown was primarily imposed till 30th
June and gradually will the growing devastation of the virus, the lockdown on educational
institution was further extended till 14th November 2020. These prolonged closures are not only
affecting the academic career of a student but also affecting their mental health greatly.

Primary and Secondary level of education

This is probably the most vulnerable segment of Bangladesh’s student population. The dropout
rate in Bangladesh is still too high for secondary (37.60 per cent) and post-secondary education
(19.60 per cent, according to BANBEIS). The loss in schooling hours is not the only impact
looming out from the Covid-19 crisis. On top of learning, schools are also a vital source of social
protection, nutrition, health as well as psychosocial supports to children and young adults.
Therefore, on top of loss in learning, school closures have far-reaching impacts on social and
economic issues such as school dropouts, digital divide, food insecurity and malnutrition,
childcare, as well as disability services.

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After the pandemic, the crisis will not be any easy for the students remaining at school either. Due
to fall in income at large, overall out-of-pocket expenditure in education will inevitably fall,
particularly for the families from the lower-income deciles. Quality of teaching might also fall.
Many students might shift from low-cost private schools to already over-burdened public schools.
The low-cost private schools that serve the lower-middle-class families, and run on small margins,
might face an existential crisis. Moreover, with a fall in pays, it could be the best teachers in
schools who might switch jobs first.

The SSC examination of 2020 luckily has been taken and results have been published recently but
the HSC candidates of 2020 are still in huge uncertainty. Most of the candidates and their families
are going through an unimaginable mental pressure, thinking of their future career prospects. The
present situation also shows that it will increase the disparity between the students living in remote
rural areas with their urban counterparts. Students living in the rural areas fear that they would be
left out as they lack the access to high speed data connectivity along with other facilities.

Tertiary level of education

The tertiary level students, meaning the high school and college students are most likely losing
their interest to overall learning procedures. This student population of tertiary level are mostly
teenagers who are not used to be confined for this long time period. (Lawry et al, 2019) Due to
this these students are getting more addicted to internet and social media platforms. Mental health
is highly compromised of these population as they are going through a lot towards an uncertain
period of life. As most of the people are losing jobs it will impact the educational lives of these
students as well.

On April 30, 2020, the government asked the public and private universities to continue their
curriculum through online classes and start their academic activities online. Now private
universities and public universities are conducting their online academic activities as per the UGC
rules. Distance learning or online learning have been a productive measure in this global pandemic
crisis for many. To some extent the percentage of unmet demand of the students is also increased
due to the scarcity of online access in remote and unprivileged communities. Unequal access to
educational resources to different levels of students are creating barriers to their learning process.
Benefits of digital services are a lot in terms of using it in the digital mode of education but not all
the students have access to a smooth internet access and other educational materials. As a result,
though the online learning process impacts the overall outcome of a student of a country.

A broader and deeper consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic on the education sector might
emerge from the economic downturns being ignited by the pandemic control measures. SANEM
estimates based on the latest Household Income Expenditure Survey (HIES) shows that - before
the crisis, 23.90 per cent (or 8.4 million) of the students' families were below the poverty line. As
the crisis prolongs, assuming a three months long lockdown since 25 March, therefore a 25.0 per
cent fall in annual per capita income, SANEM find that as many as 43.90 per cent of the students'
families could fall below the poverty line (for primary: 51.70 per cent, secondary: 42.40 per cent;
SSC/HSC: 30.20 per cent; and university: 19.0 per cent). Hence, there could be as many as 7.70
million additional students' families falling below the poverty line during this crisis, taking the
total number of students below the poverty line to 16 million. Such fallout in poverty from
economic crises has long-term impacts. Emanating from the economic crisis there is a good chance
that the country might see a resurface of higher rates of child-labors, child marriages, or even
transactional sex for children and adolescents-all phenomenon leading to higher dropout rates. As
a result, out of the 16.0 million students from poor families - many might never come to schools
ever again.

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Recommendations
Given the discoveries of the appraisals, some short, medium, and long-haul intercessions are
needed to recouping from the misfortune brought about by the lockdown. The transient proposals
are:
1. Reinforce the internet learning measures and give some choice to cover the understudies with
innovative imperatives; portable application and recorded recordings can be useful in such manner
2. Create comprehensive substance and change the showing cycle so the understudies with
incapacities, from ethnic minorities, understudies living in rustic regions and madrasa understudies
can be connected similarly adequately
3. Guarantee that the instructors connect the understudies in any event once every week and guide
them on the best way to proceed with schooling at home; observing from training workplaces
ought to be fortified in such manner
4. Send endowments and perusing materials to assist understudies with staying shielded from
mental injury and keep learning at home
5. Broadcast more classes and youngster well-disposed recreational projects through TV
6. Present a hotline number for the understudies so the understudies can report any sort of protests
including misuse, food deficiencies, payment, and so on; Ministry of Education ought to guarantee
corrective measures against the grievances

The medium-term proposals are:

1. Give impetuses to the educators to take additional consideration of the understudies through
taking more classes and recreational exercises when the schools continue
2. Improve the test questions and condense the prospectus to lessen the weight of the understudies
3. Fuse mindfulness messages on COVID-19 and different pandemics in scholastic educational
programs as it is expected that this sort of infection will exist worldwide for an all-inclusive period

The drawn-out recommendations are:

1. Assign a different financial plan for each school so they can be outfitted with fundamental
infrastructural courses of action and educators preparing to proceed with removed instructing
learning measures later
2. An aggregate methodology and activity plan ought to be defined and executed; the part of the
administration, NGOs, common society and media ought to be determined
Conclusion
The lockdown has presented unfriendly effects on the understudies concentrating in essential and
auxiliary schools. Most understudies have been proceeding with their schooling at home all alone,
or with the assistance of relatives. A few understudies are partaking in removed learning programs.
Be that as it may, most understudies are confronting difficulties. Mental injury and uneasiness are
apparent among countless understudies. Not getting enough help from guardians and financial
limitations are additionally influencing considers. Numerous families are experiencing a food
emergency because of monetary closure and portability limitations. Understudies are getting
occupied with ineffective exercises because of lockdown. A critical part of their time is spent in
tattling, web perusing, playing internet games, and staring at the TV. Notwithstanding, the brilliant
side of the story is that a decent number of understudies are investing their energy seeking after
their interests or inventive exercises.

The understudies with inabilities are lopsidedly influenced by the lockdown. They have
experienced the most maltreatment and badgering. Their tension towards Coved contamination
and dread of training has expanded. Language and distance are the principle challenges for
understudies from the ethnic minority. Then again, the madrasa understudies are experiencing a
lack of food, which has driven them to cessation of instruction at home. The understudies living
in country territories and those concentrating in madrasas didn't get clear bearings from schools.
Absence of observing by significant partners is one more test to keep learning at home
appropriately.

The far-off learning has arisen as valuable other option. Notwithstanding, the vast majority of the
understudies can't get to this office. The understudies of ethnic minorities, with inabilities, madrasa
and those living in country territories are least profited. Calculated imperatives appear to be the
basic snag behind the lower support in these stages. The understudies who do take an interest have
additionally proposed upgrades.

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Reference
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(2015). Prevention of violence against women and girls: what does the evidence say?. The
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(2016). Teaching in a digital age: How educators use technology to improve student
learning. Journal of research on technology in education, 48(3), 194-211.
Stanley, N., Barter, C., Wood, M., Aghtaie, N., Larkins, C., Lanau, A., & Överlien, C.
(2018). Pornography, sexual coercion and abuse and sexting in young people’s intimate
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