Bytesforall Bangladesh contributed the Bangladesh country chapter titled ‘A learning loss: online education during the pandemic in Bangladesh‘ at the Global Information Society Watch Report, which was released recently at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) event in Ethiopia.
The pandemic-related lock down had one of the toughest impact in the education sector of Bangladesh. When the primary and secondary schools were first closed for in-person classes, millions of students and parents were clueless about their next course of action. Eventually, the schools were closed for such a long time that Sheldon Yett, the UNICEF representative to Bangladesh, emphasized that “schools should be among the last institutions to close, and among the first to reopen, as we put in measures to tackle infection waves.”[19] This long closure coupled with a lack of access to internet connectivity not only created a learning divide, but also a learning loss. With data, information and anecdotes, the article focuses how pandemic related long closure of the schools had brought the education sector heavily relying on a system for which many in the bottom of the pyramid didn’t have any access, resource or capacity. Many child rights advocates opined that tens of thousands of students across the country did not return to classes after the schools were reopened. Read the report here.