Scope and Challenges of using ICT in Higher Education during COVID-19 Pandemic in Bangladesh

Submitted by: Mushfiqur Rahman

President , The Evolution

Department of Educational Administration

Noakhali Science and Technology University

Prepared on : 12/09/2020

The Education of Bangladesh: Bangladesh is a third world country . The Education system of this country can not be compared modern education system. Here, the development of Education faces various objections in every sphere of steps. Under qualified teachers, inadequate infrastructure, poor nutrition and food security all affect learning. Many schools are overcrowded, and over 80 per cent run double shifts. Teacher supervision, monitoring and accountability lack strength.Only one in four children in fifth grade have required skills in mathematics and Bangla, according to the 2013 National Student Assessment.In 2011, fewer than 1 in 2 boys and barely 1 in 3 girls who completed primary education were functionally literate.But even though primary enrolment is at 98 per cent, only 67 per cent qualify for secondary education and even less, 22 per cent, reach higher secondary level. The majority of dropouts tend to take place at fourth grade, the preparation stage for the examination to pass primary education at fifth grade, as per UNICEF findings. Children who suffer in case of learning may not receive necessary prioritisation and support in classrooms as the system of education in Bangladesh continue to be heavily reliant on tests and rote learning.

ICT in Higher Education: Education is an important factor for social and economic development, and higher education is a key area to maintain a country's competitiveness in the global economy. The demands of the 21st century pressurize higher education institutions to modernize their systems and practices. Within these developments, information and communications technology (ICT) brings a new set of challenges and pressures. There is a global trend in both educational policy and research to recognize the need to reform education from traditional paradigms of teaching and learning into more innovative forms of pedagogical practice. These areas of practice and change are often described with concepts such as information or knowledge society, emerging pedagogy and 21st-century skills (Ottestad, 2010). The demand for higher education has accelerated worldwide. Governments and universities are looking for innovative ways to increase access to higher education and improve the quality of their programs and courses. Regarding this, governments and education systems around the world take the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in university very seriously. Bangladesh, like many other countries, is investing heavily in the education system considering as one of the core strategies to alleviate poverty and facilitate development including raise the ICT skills of Bangladeshis and move towards the information society (Rahman, 2010). This is the evidence of giving importance on using ICTs in education and training to improve learning outcomes and to prepare young people for the contemporary information economy.

Scope of Using ICT in Higher Education during Covid-19 pandemic in Bangladesh:- Major barriers to accessing education continue to exist for marginalised and excluded children, most vulnerable to low learning and dropout rates at both primary and secondary levels. Bangladesh must also eliminate hidden cost for primary education, which is free. In the worst-performing Upazilas or sub-districts, as many as 45 per cent of children are out of school. Working children, children with disabilities and children in remote areas affected by disaster are also often denied their right to education. Natural disasters as well as harmful social norms contribute to children dropping out of school. While urban children are more likely to attend school, the number of children between 6 and 10 years of age, who are out of school is high within Dhaka City Corporation, showing prevalence of child labour in the Bangladeshi capital. There are even more barriers to this list, which includes family poverty, hidden costs, disability, rigidity of formal systems and lack of alternative options.Lack of safety and high prevalence of sexual harassment and abuse in public places contribute to girls’ dropout from schools.Schools do not have functional water, sanitation facilities responsive to gender or disability, as well as menstrual hygiene, which significantly contribute to performance and attendance of girls.Other barriers include family poverty, hidden costs, disability, rigidity of formal systems and lack of alternative options. The Bangladeshi education system is unusually complex in that primary, middle, senior and tertiary education are oriented towards general, madresh (religious) or technical / vocational preferences Even private schools and universities are heavily subsidized – in fact the constitution decrees that children between ages 6 and 10 shall pay nothing. To complicate things further, local education is controlled by a hierarchy of school boards. The first phase, fully free primary school lasts for 5 years, typically between ages 6 and 10. Pupils aged approximately 11 years of age enter junior secondary school. This is a critical phase in their young lives, for here they must confirm an educational choice that may dictate their futures irrevocably. Those who choose to complete the last 2 of their 10 school grades at general secondary schools may specialize in humanities, science or commerce to mention but a few. At the end of this they may write a secondary school certificate examination supervised by no less than 7 school boards. Alternatively, they may elect to follow the madrash religious education route that culminates in a different series of similar level tests. Other students switch across to vocational training institutes or technical training centers administered by the ministry of education and the ministry of labor and employment respectively. Choices here are between longer-term professional certification and shorter term job-specific orientation. Students who stay either course have choices once again. These include writing their higher secondary education certificate after 2 more years at a technical / poly technical institute where they hone their practical skills further. Alternatively, they may enter one of many private or state-funded universities for 5 years of undergraduate study. The Covid-19 pandemic is having a devastating effect on the education and training of young people, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has warned.Since the outset of the crisis, over 70 per cent of youth who study or combine study with work have been adversely affected by the closures of schools, universities and training centres, according to an analysis by the International Labour Organization.According to the report ‘Youth and COVID-19: impacts on jobs, education, rights and mental well-being’, 65 per cent of young people reported they had learned less during the pandemic because of the transition from classroom to online and distance learning during lockdown. Despite their efforts to continue studying and training, half of them believe their studies would be delayed and nine per cent think that they might fail.The situation has been even worse for youth living in lower-income countries, who have less access to Internet, lack of equipment and sometimes lack of space at home, the report noted.This highlights large “digitals divides” between regions: while 65 per cent of youth in high-income countries were taught classes via video-lecture, only 18 per cent in low-income countries could keep studying online. According to the report, 38 per cent of young people are uncertain about their future career prospects, with the crisis expected to create more obstacles in the labour market and to lengthen the transition from school to work.Some have already felt a direct impact, with one in six youth having to stop work since the onset of the pandemic.Many younger workers are more likely to be employed in highly affected occupations, such as support, services and sales-related work, making them more vulnerable to the economic consequences of the pandemic.42 per cent of those who have continued to work have seen their incomes reduced.This has also had an impact on their mental well-being. The survey found that 50 per cent of young people are possibly subject to anxiety or depression, while a further 17 per cent are probably affected by it. Despite the extreme circumstances, young people are using their energy to mobilise and speak-out in the fight against the crisis. According to the survey, one in four did some volunteer work during the pandemic.Ensuring that youth voices are heard is critical to delivering a more inclusive response to the Covid-19 crisis. Giving young people a say in decision-making to articulate their needs and ideas improves the effectiveness of policies and programmes and gives youth the chance to participate in their delivery, says the report.

Challenges of Using ICT in Higher Education of Bangladesh during COVID-19:- From the very past times , Bangladeshi education system is supposed to be poor system. In covid 19 ,when the issue comes to online education , then no word to find in dictionary for clarifying the situation . The situation of online education of Bangladesh is very imbalanced . Some educationalists are promoting “Digital Divides” between the students by seeking online classes. Where a majority number of people are not well established in Bangladesh then the Covid-19 is definitely a big curse to them. They don’t know , what to survive ? how to survive? They are afraid about their life safety . In this situation, the country like Bangladesh starting online education , maintaining online education is clearly seemed a DAY DREAM. The entire world is combating the SARS-CoV-2 which has spread to almost every corner of the world over the first quarter of 2020. As of May 31, the death toll crossed 3,71,023 while the total number of infections is beyond 6 million, across the world. To control the rapid spread, many countries resorted to lockdown that resulted in an adverse impact on all areas of our daily life. In Bangladesh, the first three Covid-19 patients were identified on March 8 in the capital and as an aftermath, the country went into general shut down from March 26. Since then, people are largely staying home except for emergencies while educational institutions, most of the industries and businesses are kept shut. Apart from the economy, one of the worst affected hits of Covid-19 is the education sector. The disease started spreading from China in February and transmission became accelerated in March. Inevitably, by that time, schools and universities across the world began to close gradually. Bangladesh closed all educational institutions from March 17 and students' residence halls were evacuated immediately. Some private universities started online classes from April whilst public institutions are largely at bay from it till now. BioTED, as a novel training and research initiative, is engaged with students from different universities. As we closed our regular training activities on 2nd week of March and decided to continue one training programme online, we faced some challenges. Some of the students who moved out from Dhaka to their native town/village could not attend the sessions due to poor internet connectivity as well as unavailability of devices. Moreover, we were informed that some private universities have started taking online classes and are preparing to take examinations as well. This situation intrigued us to conduct a survey on university students with a view to understanding their situation and preparedness for online classes. Through our students' network, we conducted a quick survey where we received responses from 42 public and private universities and affiliated colleges. In three days (May 9-11), 2038 students participated in our survey where we asked some simple questions. Students from science (55%), arts and humanities (12.1%), social sciences (11.2%), business studies (12%) and other disciplines (4.7%) responded to our survey from both public (58.8%) and private (41.2%) universities. Among them, 34% are currently located in a rural area and 66% in an urban location. Strikingly, only 23% of the students were in favour of taking online classes in this situation, while the rest 77% opposed the idea. The underlying fact of this strong dissent becomes clear when we found only 55.3% of the students have access to a laptop, PC, or a tablet to attend an online class. It shows us 44.7% of the students cannot attend online classes due to lack of logistics. The most important factor for online classes is internet connectivity and our survey revealed that 55% of the students are not supported by proper internet connections at this moment to continue with online education. We found that 40% of the students are already attending online classes, among whom the majority (70%) are from private universities. The COVID-19 pandemic took the world by surprise.Globally, everything has stopped. Projects have been delayed, workplaces closed and schools shut down. The world seems to have ground to a halt because of the novel coronavirus.However, students continue their education through online learning and via video calls with their teachers, especially in big cities such as Jakarta. The model is currently the best alternative as keeping schools open poses a safety risk for students. As a student participating in the home-learning program, online school was confusing to adjust to as we had not been prepared through simulations or practices beforehand. Students reported the home-learning program to be even more stressful than regular classrooms. Some of the common reasons for this went along the lines of: "Normal classes may have been difficult, but having friends makes it so much more manageable and less stressful. Every solutions have some problems and challenges.

The most staggering figure is that 87% of students think online assessment will not be feasible and similarly, 82% believe that online classroom is not as effective as a real classroom. The most challenging aspects we found from the survey are the current location and accessibility of appropriate device and the internet. Many students moved to their rural homes where high-speed internet may not be available. On top, not all students were able to carry their books and academic materials because they could not imagine this might go such long. Therefore, we found only 16% of the participants are engaged in their academic study and rest are spending time with TV and social media or sitting idle at-home quarantine. The fact of not being interested in online classes gives us some clue. The foremost is internet access and the cost of the internet too. An average duration class may take 300 MB of data and if a student attends 3 classes per day he will need to spend around 1GB of data. They may also need to watch some more videos to supplement their practical, especially for science students. In rural locations where broadband internet is not easily available, this will cost them a good sum. Many of the students may not be able to afford it. Although the smartphone is very common among students, nevertheless the smaller size is not good enough to understand online deliveries. All these facts make online classes a sheer challenge to reach out individual student scattered all over the country in this current situation. The other big challenge is online exams. We asked students to throw their opinion and many answered that the time is a critical factor. Another important issue is exam designing. Traditional exam format should not work because student's dishonesty cannot be checked. Online proctoring might help but its feasibility must be checked. To make online assessment a success open-book exams can be tested but whether it will work for all the disciplines is also another worry. Our academics will need to work a lot on laying an appropriate exam system. Some students who already attended online exams opined that in current practice they are not even given sufficient time to complete their assessment as compared to classroom assessment. Another side of the story is teacher orientation. Not all the teachers are well equipped to record classes. Similarly, they need training in preparing online lectures and the utilisation of online tools. If they take classes from home, their internet connections have to be considered either.

Nowadays, Microsoft and many other developers provide efficient tools for eLearning. Unfortunately, those tools are not very much integrated into our formal university education system. We believe this is the high time to utilize and incorporate those opportunities. However, as prerequisites, availability of the digital device and required internet connection must be ensured. Otherwise, it may fail to bring the ultimate benefit for comparatively poorer or underprivileged students. BioTED conducted this survey to bring this fact under consideration of appropriate authorities. The Covid-19 crisis may continue and the current gridlock in universities may go even longer. Not only classes, progressing through the academic year must be ensured to reduce any potential congestion in academic sessions. Therefore, this is the right time to take pragmatic decisions. To take an appropriate decision we suggest universities, UGC and other stakeholders like the Ministry of Telecommunication who regulates internet prices, as well as service providers, sit together and go for an open dialogue hearing from the students and teachers. Realistic solutions should come from a coordinated effort that may not be derived by hasty moves. It is imperative to mention that according to BABEIS (Bangladesh Education Statistics, 2018) there are 145 universities (public and private) in Bangladesh and the total number of students and teachers are 10, 28,314 and 29,374 respectively. Such a huge population should be engaged in online education after careful observation and planning. We expect, in this current crisis a solution will be provided keeping the need of less privileged students in mind while keeping the possibility of community infection at bay during this pandemic. On top, the Covid-19 challenge has given us a unique opportunity too. Our vision 2021 encompasses a digital Bangladesh which has hitherto not been possible to achieve. Overcoming the current challenge will bolster government's capacity towards achieving the goal. To achieve this goal, government should seriously consider providing subsidy for "internet in education" alike other sectors who have received motivation during Covid-19. The subsidy will in turn develop the digital capacity in university level apart from keeping the education going, thereby enabling our universities to take similar challenges in future.

Recommendations for overcoming the challenges: Here are some recommendations to overcome Covid 19 Challenge in Education system of Bangladesh-

Ø Every pendemic teaches us surviving factors. To keep the learning of pendemic among students, the government should open all the Universities , Educational institutions by maintaining proper safety ,proper sanitization. These will teach students how to survive a pendemic anyway, anywhere. And when another pendemic will come , then the students will be motivated enough to be stable against the further pendemics . Then they can afford their strength to make rise the country progress in any situation . So , the Educational institutions should be opened by maintaining proper safety.

Ø If majority number of students feel problem to continue online claases , then the Government should stop the online classes to avoid digital divide .

Ø The teacher can provide lessons for academic study without any pressue for students.

Ø If any institutions like to step for online class then the institution should provide the necessary tools for online learning.

Ø The government wiil take any step by realizing the actual challenges of majority students.

The government should involve with Russia very diplomatically to achieve Coronavirus vaccine. If the vaccine comes to Bangladesh, the situation of every perspectives will be normal. Then Education system will be constructed very productively.

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So the topic has been explained through the discussion. As soon as possible ,we will overcome Covid-19. The Education system will be productive very sooner.