LAUSR

Due to the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), cases in Bangladesh have continued to increase with a total number of confirmed cases of over 1.04 million and over 16,842 deaths (as of July 14, 2021). Such a surge in COVID-19 cases has caused detrimental impacts in all areas of human lives including students of all levels. The economic and psychological costs to students in higher learning institutions in Bangladesh are believed to be very high compared to other demographic groups in the country (Islam et al., 2020) as a large proportion of expenditure (29% of total education cost) is spent on private tutoring (Toaha, 2015). All the educational institutions in Bangladesh were (physically) closed since early March 2020 and will continue to be so until August 2021 (Ela et al., 2021; Xinhua, 2021). Based on the infection rate of COVID-19 in Bangladesh, it is uncertain when these institutions are going to physically open and return to normal in-person teaching environment and the chances of higher education institutions opening in this calendar year appear quite unlikely. Moreover, the physical operation of all types of educational institutions depends on the discretion of the government which is constantly monitoring the situation. Consequently, this situation has created severe psychological and socioeconomic pressure among students enrolled at higher learning institutions (Faisal et al., 2021) because the prolonged closure will result in delayed graduation and depriving them of the opportunity to secure their desired jobs (Ela et al., 2021; Hossain et al., 2021). Here, we provide several explanations in an aim to better understand the situation and provide some guidelines to the respective authorities, particularly to the Ministry of Education in Bangladesh.