Evaluation of Flexible Strategies to Manage the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Education Sector

Abstract

COVID-19 has had a substantial impact on almost every field including the education sector. Due to the requirements for social distancing, the pandemic has provided an impetus for change in the education sector; technology-based sustainable education platforms not experienced previously have become essential. This research aims to propose flexible strategies to mitigate challenges of COVID-19 pandemic in the education sector of an emerging economy: Bangladesh. A total of 16 challenges and 19 flexible strategies were identified based on stakeholders' inputs and literature review. To evaluate the flexible strategies, a methodology based on Pareto analysis and a revised rough-decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (rough-DEMATEL) method is proposed. Findings reveal that in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, 'Maintain social distancing and health protocol,' 'Enhance the communication and collaboration among students and teachers,' 'Financial incentives from government,' 'Utilize modern technologies for digitizing the entire education system,' and 'Know how to engage students in an online environment' are the vital strategies that must be implemented if education continues through E-learning. Because the current pandemic situation is a new experience for many individuals around the world, this study helps to recognize the challenges and to propose effective strategies to solve these challenges so that education does not become stagnant.

Addressing the Challenges to Sustainable Initiatives in Value Chain Flexibility: Implications for Sustainable Development Goals

“…This study confirmed how flexibility moves toward the SDGs. Previous studies highlight the positive relationship between sustainability and resilience within decisionmaking processes in risk measurement (Settembre-Blundo et al, 2021); of the potential benefits associated with the implementation of a flexible consumption tax (Gerbeti, 2021); of the decisive contribution of renewable energy globally (Ikram, 2021); and in the resilience of the education sector following pandermia (Ahmed et al, 2021).…”

Social Sustainability Challenges Towards Flexible Supply Chain Management: Post-COVID-19 Perspective

“…Biswas ( 2020 ) evaluated the performance of Indian health care SC where pivot pairwise relative criteria importance assessment (PIPRECIA) method was used to find the criteria weights and then multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC), combined compromise solution (CoCoSo), and measurement of alternatives and ranking according to compromise solution (MARCOS), were used to find the rank of alternatives. Ahmed et al ( 2021 ) applied Pareto analysis and rough-decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (rough-DEMATEL) method to identify the challenges in the education sector of Bangladesh due to COVID-19 and proposed 19 flexible strategies to combat these challenges. Sarker et al ( 2021 ) developed a sustainability performance assessment model for the leather industry integrating several MCDM tools, i.e.…”

Individual Resilience in the Organization in the Face of Crisis: Study of the Concept in the Context of COVID-19

“…Beyond the unprecedented nature of this health crisis, we observe that no sector of activity is exempt and that all organizations are affected. The repercussions are political, social, societal, economic and financial as well as organizational (Ahmed et al, 2021;Elias, 2021;Frimousse & Peretti, 2020;Paramita et al, 2021;Paul & Chowdhury, 2020;Ufua et al 2021).…”

“…In this current crisis that is unprecedented in scale and intensity since the Second World War, organizations cannot provide preconceived responses through the establishment of conventional emergency procedures to ensure their stability (Ahmed et al, 2021;Gajdzik & Wolniak, 2021).…”