The epidemic, which started early last year, is about to turn two years. People never imagined that people would be virtually stagnant for so long. Weakness towards good fortune is human nature, so people have always hoped that everything will be fine soon, and they have actually passed quite a long period. In the meantime, of course, many precious lives have been lost or are being lost, many people have lost their livelihood. The people of small and medium capital have come to the brink of spending their accumulated money / ability gradually. The normal cost of living has to be cut, and that’s how people have to fight for survival. In the meantime, many have lost their relatives and are living a miserable life. Countless unemployed people in the city have crossed the line of endurance and are finally migrating to their village homes in a last ditch effort.
The waves of the corona are taking the form of waves of the sea or river which are making people breathe. One wave after another is appearing with one kind of feature and horror. Struggling and optimistic people still do not give up, hoping that the Creator can not be so ruthless, he will surely point out some way to save His creation. Even the wise, civilized, researcher and experts of the modern world are constantly trying and working hard to invent the ways to prevent this global epidemic.
Although this global epidemic has affected all aspects of human life, it seems to have affected the education system even more. Educational institutions have been closed for about a year and a half. At the beginning of the lockdown, there was a talk of online education as an alternative, but in practice it failed to play a significant role. Involving a large number of students from various and multi-level educational institutions of the country in online teaching has been a long way off. Despite being widely advertised as a digital country; the country is virtually at a semi-digital level where online activities have become a thing of the past. Although some of the leading elite institutions have been somewhat successful in online teaching, the educational institutions in large scale have come to a virtual standstill. Many educational institutions either do not understand what is meant by online education or do not have sufficient capacity to conduct online activities. Some organizations are discharging their duties by uploading a recorded short video-class of 5/7 minutes a week on Facebook. To date, no integrated system has been observed for conducting and coordinating educational activities across the country. Where developed countries are already adopting various alternative approaches to education, our country is still lagging behind. However, the interesting fact is that while the online education/activities are not successful on various occasions, our students are not far behind in their use of online, they are still active on social media and various websites and continue to search for entertainment. In many cases, parents are pretending not to see it and are silently encouraging it. If this continues, we may not be able to predict where our education system will end up.
We are also not in a satisfactory position in conducting vaccination activities in the country. So far we have not been able to vaccinate even one-tenth of the people who are eligible to be vaccinated, which is really disappointing. We are also failing to observe the lockdown properly for various reasons. We are showing flexibility towards the people of different sectors for various excuses or reasons where the only exception is the education sector. In hindsight, it seems, Corona has relied solely on educational institutions. The members of a family, including the head of the family, are moving freely everywhere including markets, entertainment centers, hospitals etc. but only the school-college-university students of the same family (if any) are exclusively preventing Corona by abstaining from going to the educational institution which is really ridiculous.
Like the developed countries, if we don’t think of making decisions about online education, open field classes, etc., the consequences of keeping the nation away from the light of education for a long time can be very devastating and suicidal. The stagnation of educational activities is not only bringing laxity among the students but it is also crippling the huge educated and trained human resources i.e. the teachers and staffs physically, mentally and intellectually. These people involved in education are struggling to make a living, they are not able to go on strikes, meetings or processions like other livelihood people, they are not able to leave their livelihood easily and take up any other profession to make a living. Students as well as teachers and staff are gradually becoming detached from the mainstream of education, which may bring negative consequences in long run.
People are running marketing activities to procure their daily necessities but showing difference to the educational activities as an optional consideration. When education is disrupted, its effects are not immediately apparent, so people can easily avoid it, but the far-reaching consequences can be devastating due to incompetence. Therefore, effective steps should be taken now without further delay. It is important to keep in mind that the nation has a relatively sensitive interior than the outer appearance that needs more maintenance and care, otherwise it may not be possible to sustain a nation merely by caring for the outer visible organs or activities.
Source: Business Insider BD
