Abstract
The education sector in Bangladesh has been affected severely by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis like many other countries around the globe. Both the public and private universities faced different types of challenges to continue the teaching-learning process during this time. The chapter has explored these challenges and mitigation strategies based on quantitative and qualitative studies with undergraduate and graduate students of public and private universities. The study has covered both public and privately owned general and engineering universities to explore more specific issues and directives. Moreover, in-depth interviews were conducted with teachers to learn the problems they faced and subsequent strategies to cope with the challenges to minimize these challenges and educational loss. The study identified the infrastructural, technical, psychological, health, educational policy, and financial-related challenges faced by key stakeholders. The study incorporated directives to overcome these challenges and provide guidelines for policymakers at home and abroad.
TopMethodology
To explore the overall scenario regarding challenges of public and private universities that have been passing during the pandemic situation of COVID-19, both quantitative and qualitative approaches have been used. The time frame of the study was in October, 2020, when the case per 1 million population was 2,467 and deaths per 1 million population was 36 in Bangladesh (worldometer.info, 2020). It is a point to be mentioned here that diagnosed patients in Bangladesh had been increasing until the end of August, 2020, and later on, it had a declining trend until the end of October, 2020. However, an increasing pattern of new cases had been observed since November, 2020 in Bangladesh which was quite alarming (“Bangladesh Reports 3674 Cases Highest Deaths in 101 Days,” 2021).
The study emphasized digging out probable challenges faced by the private and public universities during the pandemic situation and suggested mitigation strategies in the light of qualitative interviews from students and teachers of universities. In the qualitative approach, 13 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with public university students and 6 FGDs with private university students were conducted. To make the qualitative outcome more rational, the study divided the students into technical and non-technical backgrounds; along with universities from general and engineering categories.
Moreover, the study conducted 12 In-depth Interviews (IDIs) with teachers from both public and private universities considering departments and their involvements in the online classes. Finally, a structured questionnaire-based survey was conducted among students with a quasi-random sampling format which is somewhat similar to the convenient sampling method by using Google Form and collected responses from 373 students of different public and private universities.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Edupreneur: Education-based entrepreneurs are considered edupreneur as they are mainly focused on education-based business and products/services development.
Public University: Public universities are academic institutions that are state-owned and funded by the government.
Digital Divide: Digital divide has been observed due to the inequality that exists among the students based on the access to modern devices and technology across socioeconomic groups.
University Grants Commission (UGC): The University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh is the statutory apex body in the field of higher education in Bangladesh. The primary objectives of the UGC are to supervise, maintain, promote, and coordinate university education. Its mission is to ensure quality higher education for Bangladesh.
Private University: Private universities are academic institutions that are not owned by the state and operated under the privately managed entity. The Source of funding for this type of institution is the tuition and investments, and private donors.
Lockdown: A lockdown is a requirement for people to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks to themselves or others if they can move freely. The term “stay-at-home” or “shelter-in-place” is often used for lockdowns that affect an area, rather than specific locations.
Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. It is also called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; formerly called 2019-nCoV). The COVID-19 virus spreads primarily through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
BdREN: University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh, On behalf of the Ministry of Education (MoE), implemented Bangladesh Research and Education Network (BdREN) under HEQEP through joint financing of Bangladesh Government and World Bank. It is deployed as a high-performance data Communications network providing connectivity among higher education and research institutions in both public and private sectors.