Challenges of Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Education in Bangladesh During COVID-19 Pandemic: Students’ Perspectives

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a deadly disease affecting almost all the countries of the world. The education system of Bangladesh has been highly affected by it. For around 18 months, education was being delivered online which was not adequate for all the students of Bangladesh due to some systemic constraints. Most of the primary students were not at all prepared to receive their education online. Although the secondary level students somehow managed to continue online education by preparing and submitting their assignments, the tertiary level students had to wait a long time for their online final examinations. This study aimed at identifying the major challenges of primary, secondary, and tertiary level education in Bangladesh during Covid-19 pandemic, from students' perspectives. The approach was mixed, non-experimental and descriptive in nature. Surveying a total of 60 students through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, it was found that major challenges of the students include educational difficulties, socio-psychological abnormalities, pedagogical limitations, infrastructural shortcomings, economic disorders, technological barriers, mental health issues, and so on. Level-specific challenges of the students were also observed as the tertiary level students were found to be the worst affected due to this pandemic.