Classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, the novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) has spread to Bangladesh since early March of 2020, and people are getting daily updates from the social and electronic media. We aimed at assessing the prevalence of anxiety among Bangladeshi people during the pandemic in connection with social media exposure (SME) and electronic media exposure (EME). For this cross-sectional study, data were collected from 880 participants by a self-administered online-based questionnaire relating personal characteristics, self-rate health (SRH), SME, and EME with anxiety. Findings show that around half of the surveyed population experienced a spike of anxiety (49.1%) during the pandemic, ten times higher than the national anxiety rate in 2019. The participants with an increased SME of over four hours per day experienced a higher level of anxiety than individuals with < = 2 hours exposure to social media. Similarly, the anxiety was higher among people with fair/bad SRH compared to individuals with excellent SRH. It is highly recommended to develop active surveillance and effective monitoring systems to reduce the spread of misinformation from both social and electronic media to improve the state of mental health conditions during the pandemic.

The erratic nature of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) forced the Bangladeshi government to shut down all the educational institutions since March 18, 2020. This prolonged closure not only detached the students from their study but also increased anxiety among them regarding their future academic as well as professional careers. The present study aimed to explore the perception and understanding of the students and teachers regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the academic life and career pursuit of university students in Bangladesh. With a semistructured interview schedule, data for this qualitative study were collected from 8 purposively selected participants, using telephone interviews, affiliated with a public university in Bangladesh. Students argued that the extended closure is responsible for the delayed graduation of the senior students, thereby, mounting mental stress and frustration among them. The informants unequivocally opposed the online education platform, as a solution for the ongoing gap, due to scarcity of the resources, and unequal accesses and opportunities for all. It has been suggested that the education gap can be reduced by shortening the term, curtailing the preparatory leave, and taking extra classes over the weekends when the universities reopen together with enforced collective health hygiene.

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This study was designed to explore the challenges of participating in online education/distance learning (OE/DL) of students and teachers of secondary, higher secondary, and tertiary educational institutions in Bangladesh. Administering both web-based e-questionnaire and self-administered questionnaire, data were collected from 2,473 students and teachers. Findings from analysis of variance and t-test indicated disagreements among students and teachers regarding the challenges of OE/DL, with some exceptions, such as learning difficulties, willingness of government, and frequent load shedding. The outcome of exploratory factor analysis suggested a two-factor solution—‘pedagogical-technical challenges' and ‘financial challenges'—explaining around 50% variance regarding OE/DL. The overall results indicated that for an inclusive and quality OE/DL in Bangladesh, the improvement in technical infrastructure and pedagogical contents and resolving financial struggle are highly recommended to make OE/DL more effective and minimize the impact of a pandemic on the education sector.

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