Education during Pandemic: Perspectives of Secondary School English Teachers from Malaysia, Nepal, and Bangladesh

Abstract

One of the most affected sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic was education. Abrupt and sudden changes in teaching and learning practices that teachers and students experienced were unprecedented, and the effect is still felt today. Hence, the study sought to identify the challenges secondary English language teachers in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Nepal faced during the pandemic. Adopting a Comparative Case Study (CCS) research model, this was a transnational effort to explore the experiences of a cross-border ELT professional community teaching under various restrictions and limitations imposed by the governments in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Five key challenges emerged during the findings, namely: (i) teaching and learning dificulties, (ii) unreliable and invalid assessments, (iii) infrastructural hurdles in a home learning environment, (iv) student displacement, and (v) compromised teacher wellbeing. In retrospect, there was a cause for optimism as teachers acquired crucial survival skills, yet most challenges remain valid to this day. So various stakeholders must remain vigilant and devise robust measures in anticipation of future events of this kind and scale.

Rethinking English Classroom Practices in the Post-COVID Bangladesh: Making a Case for Blended-learning

“…In Bangladesh, the COVID-19 pandemic severely aff ected education (UNESCO, 2021), as the government was required to implement a country-wide lockdown from mid-March 2020 to implement social distancing (Ahmed, 2021;Dewan et al, 2022). As an initial response, the government temporarily used the national broadcasting service to continue primary and secondary education (Ahmed, 2021).…”

“…Studies on COVID-19 ERT in Bangladesh revealed that the major impediment to teaching online was inadequate infrastructural support required for virtual classrooms (Ahmed, 2021;Bashir et al, 2021;Dewan et al, 2022;Farhana et al, 2020;Khan et al, 2020Khan et al, , 2021Khan et al, , 2021aKhan et al, , 2023Mannan et al, 2020;Rafi que, 2023). These challenges included: a lack of access to devices and technologies, lack of access to the Internet, unstable and unreliable connections, and high Internet data costs.…”

“…These challenges included: a lack of access to devices and technologies, lack of access to the Internet, unstable and unreliable connections, and high Internet data costs. Thus, in most cases, ERT appeared to be a mere tokenism while waiting for in-person classes to resume (Ahmed, 2021;Shrestha et al, 2021;Dewan et al, 2022). Many students cannot take advantage of synchronous online video classes because of not owning required devices, the high costs of broadband connections, and unstable connections (Farhana et al, 2020;Kabir & Hasnat, 2021;Khan et al, 2021a;Khan et al, 2023).…”