Are Educational Institutions Still Worth it in 2020?

When country after country chooses lockdown as the only way to tackle COVID-19, internet-based education becomes not a choice but compulsion to cope up with the situation.  The lives of about 60 million students around the world are at stake in this situation.  Although this disorder has forced students to suffer considerable losses, we cannot deny some of the practical benefits of this transformation in the education system. In a country like Bangladesh, the availability of the internet to the students remains questionable till today’s date.  A large number of students are still unable to take advantage of online education as they do not have the facilities needed to ensure proper online classes. However, it is also true that if Covid-19 had not attacked us, online education would have remained a fantasy for this country.

Nazifa Binte Harun, one of the rising UG 1 students, thinks that educational institutions are not worth it in 2020. Frankly saying, the majority of the student body has similar perspectives about educational institutions in 2020. She says that the year 2020 itself has proved unworthy as a whole to have invested not only sums of money but also the amount of dedication in fields like education. A significant difference in the University's expenditure appears since the moment students find themselves sitting in their room completing their courses through Zoom instead of a physical classroom.  Particularly in the case of AUW, for every fee-paying student, it is providing only tutoring and IT services. A very few students like Pema Yangzom think that educational institutions are still worth it. Pema believes that college is an especially smart choice when there’s a competitive job market. We can get the degree even if it's online, if it were not for educational institutions, we might not get their degree from online learning sites. Let's come back to the majority of the student's opinions. They are ready to put aside all of the issues except the quality of education. Sidratul Muntaha, a rising UG 2 student, explains that online learning is not proving to be effective. She says that she went through some horrible Zoom class experiences. It was really hard for her to pay attention and concentrate on the lecture. She says “It's not worth attending online classes paying a hefty amount of money when half of the time we lose track of the lecture. Not to mention the attitude of the authority when we ask for a waiver on our tuition fee. The finance department was not cooperative at all especially in getting back to the students. It's not worth it at all.” Nazifa strikes again with some logical questions like - How can a student carry out lab work online? What is she going to learn from science courses then? Therefore, it's explicit why educational institutions are not worth it in the following year.

It's true that without the promise of a physical campus experience, some students may opt to take a year off or enroll in a cheaper school; after all they are getting an online degree. The debate around this topic can go a long way. We hope that the situation becomes normal and can get back to our beloved campus. We want to stand in the very long pizza line; we want to do the late-night snack-sharing with roommates, we want to get back to our classes and crack lame jokes like old times. We want to make noises in the lane again. Waiting for that sunrise! Till then take care.