Shyam Sundar Sarkar, Asssistant Professor, Department of Social Welfare, Islamic University, Kushtia.
https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.703723
Abstract
The disease outbreak COVID-19 pandemic impacted public health and safety and the educational systems worldwide. For fear of the further spread of diseases, most educational institutions, including Bangladesh, have postponed their face-to-face teaching. Therefore, this study explores public university student’s perceptions towards online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. Data had collected among students of Islamic University, Kushtia, Bangladesh, through an online survey. The study followed a quantitative approach, where the survey technique was used as an instrument of data collection. Results showed that most students faced difficulty participating in virtual classes and could not communicate with their friends correctly during online classes. Thus, they faced challenges in online schooling, and the majority of the students preferred conventional types of learning to virtual classes and did not understand the content of virtual classes easily. The study also explored that most students did not feel comfortable in online classes. Still, considering the present pandemic situation, they decided to participate in online classes to continue schooling. Besides, the study discovered that female students showed a better view than male students regarding online classes, and urban students have more positive appreciation than rural students. Furthermore, laptop or personal computer users showed more positive perceptions towards online education than mobile users. Moreover, Broadband/Wi-Fi users have more positive perceptions than mobile network users. These findings would be an essential guideline for governments, policymakers, technology developers, and university authorities for making better policy choices in the future.
Mamata Mostari
Abstract
Recently, the issue of child rights has globally gained an awful lot of attention that came in the form of international convention, summit, and global action for children. Unfortunately, in the present civilized world, a huge number of children are still living on streets, and notably on the streets of Bangladesh. Most infuriatingly, there are rising number of children living in street situation in the urban areas of the country, particularly in Dhaka city and they appear mere figure that doesn’t seem to make any impact on our mind. Tragically, in our country, street children lead so miserable and tormented lives plagued by serious physical and psycho-social problems. This paper, however, attempts to explore the lives and livelihoods of the children living in street situation in Dhaka city highlighting their lifestyle, housing pattern, works and income, health status, food habit along with the recreational facilities they have. Moreover, it also discloses the problems they regularly face, the social support they get together with their future orientation. Data have been collected from sixty three purposively selected street children found in the study area. It shows that the overwhelming number of the children work as Tokai, Cooli, van/rickshaw puller, hawker, beggar and flower seller with an average income of 68.23 taka per day. In addition, being fully deprived of their basic human rights, street children suffer from and prone to various diseases like as HIV/AIDS, cold fever, stomach upset, skin diseases, water- borne diseases, headache, etc.
Moderating effects of gender and passive Facebook use on the relationship between social interaction anxiety and preference for online social interaction
Asma Sadia Runa
In recent years, internet use for online social interaction has dramatically increased among the students. Even though prior studies had confirmed that social interaction anxiety (SIA) can develop one’s preference for online social interaction (POSI) over face-to-face communication, whether the association between SIA and POSI varies with one’s gender and levels of passive Facebook use (PFU) are still unknown. Therefore, to address this knowledge gap, the present study examined the moderating effects of gender and PFU on the association between SIA and POSI among the university students of Bangladesh. Participants were 544 university students (55.9% male and 44.1% female). The study assessed POSI, SIA, PFU, and demographic characteristics of the participants employing cross-sectional study design. The hierarchical regression analysis suggested moderating effects of gender and PFU existed on the association between SIA and POSI. The study argued that male university students with high SIA prefer higher online social interaction than females. This research further argued that the relationship between SIA and POSI was stronger for the students with high passive Facebook use than the students with low passive Facebook use. Since POSI is one of the prime components of problematic internet use (PIU), which can adversely affect individuals’ psychological and physical wellbeing; hence, these results intensify the importance of early and effective interventions for the Bangladeshi university students who are at risk of developing PIU.