1. 1
Term Paper on
Career Planning in COVID-19 Situation
Course Name: Politics and Management of Change in Public Sector
Organizations
Course Code: PA4735
Submitted to
M. M. Ashaduzzaman Nour
Assistant Professor
Department of Public Administration
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)
Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)
Submitted by
Name : Nusera Tajrin
Class Roll: 17161026
4th Year, 7th Semester
Department of Public Administration
Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)
E-mail:nuseranaomi@gmail.com
S u b m i t t e d o n : 1 5 t h
J u n e , 2 0 2 0
B a n g l a d e s h U n i v e r s i t y o f P r o f e s s i o n a l s
2. 2
Table of Contents
Title Page No.
Introduction 3
Universities in Bangladesh also victim in
COVID-19
4
Online Education and backwardness 4
Career planning during COVID-19 5
Conclusion 6
3. 3
Career Planning in COVID-19 Situation
Introduction:
COVID-19 has officially been designated a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).
It has gone global with cases in over 150 countries. The people of all countries and their
leadership have also been widely praised for their resilience and success in managing large-scale
shocks. But the lockdown under COVID-19 appears to be different. The outbreak of coronavirus
pandemic has reached dangerous proportions all over the world and brought great difficulties in
its train. The prolonged situation is taking its toll on human lives, the global economy, and
education. The educational institutions have gone into unscheduled closures in response to
WHO’s a call for international pandemic action such as, social distancing, home-quarantine, self-
isolation, and lockdown to prevent community transmission of the disease. UNESCO has given a
ballpark estimate that 1.5 billion or more than 90% of the students in about 190 countries in the
world are stuck at home. The highest-ranked universities are also laden with the threat COVID
19 has posed to education. Since there is a slim chance to get rid of the situation before long, the
governments and educators are grappling to work out a solution to the problem to help minimize
the impact of the calamitous situation on education. It has been suggested that an alternative
mode of education should be there for students placed on lockdown in a bid to ensure
sustainability in academia. Because the closures of the institutions however temporary, must
make them suffer a major setback in the implementation of the academic calendar and plunge
deep into session jams.
4. 4
Universities in Bangladesh also victim in COVID-19:
Universities in Bangladeshi also have fallen victim to COVID 19 outbreak more or less. All
universities have been declared closed since 26 March 2020 and shall stay closed till September
2020 if the situation continues unabated, declared the Prime Minister. The private universities,
mostly run by tuition fees, seem to have been doubly affected by the pandemic. They are
anticipating huge financial losses to be incurred by nonpayment of tuition fees caused by the
suspension of academic activities and uncertainty about the upcoming summer semester
enrolment.
Online Education and backwardness:
Though some universities have started conducting online classes on their own, we have yet to
develop any infrastructure for online education suitable for both the teachers and the students.
Besides, all the teachers are not skilled at taking online classes and many are even reluctant to do
it. However, to make them passably good at online teaching is no big deal. But to get all the
students connected to the Internet has appeared to be the biggest challenge. A large number of
public university students are fighting shy of the online measures on the pretest of being cut off
from Internet access and financial crisis. And it will not be very effective to run the online
teaching activities only with the ones who are willing to and who are inside the range of Internet
connectivity. The inequality of opportunity may dampen the spirits of the ones dropped from the
world of virtual education and thereby vitiate the true spirit of the emergency academic move.
The private universities, however, can conduct online teaching activities more easily. Their
students are mostly coming from well-to-do families and have the ability to buy all essential
tools and devices for virtual learning and examinations. But it will not be reasonable to draw a
parallel between the experiences of the private universities and those of the public universities.
5. 5
Nearly 70 percent of the public university students come from impoverished parents and are
admitted to the universities only on merit. Most of them scratch a living from private tuition
which has also come to a halt at the moment. To participate in the virtual classes they must have
their own devices and Internet access. How would it be possible for them to have a good reliable
computer or a laptop or even a smartphone, the necessary computer peripherals, and Internet
access at their own expense when they are in dire straits? How far are they mentally capable of
doing online classes under the shadow of gloom and depression caused by the financial
difficulties, the sudden discontinuity in academic life, the considerable uncertainty about return
to normality, and the apprehension of delay in career?
Career planning during COVID-19:
In the past months, we've experienced dramatic changes to life as we know it. If we were in the
process of a career search when the pandemic hit, all planning may now seem pointless. During
times like this, we have to make a choice: Do we retreat and hide, or do we push forward and see
this as an opportunity for growth and positive change? Because in the process of online
education all students are not capable to access or participate in the online class. Those who are
from public universities are fighting shy of the online measures on the pretest of being cut off
from Internet access and financial crisis. The inequality of opportunity is one of the prominent
factors to conduct online classes which lead to delay in career planning during this pandemic
situation. Both public and private universities need to plan for making up lost time and make at
least a two-year plan to curtail holidays, hold extra classes and work with students so that delays
and session jams are averted.
If we consider this situation and take it in a positive mind we can also develop our career plan
during this pandemic. All students are now in-home quarantine and there is plenty of time which
we cannot get in normal time. If we utilize this huge time developing ourselves like take job
preparation, engaging ourselves in online earnings, opening an account in various academic
write-up websites and upload various write-up, earning through freelancing or searching other
online jobs it will help develop our career.
6. 6
Conclusion:
Given the gravity of the situation, this sounds quite reasonable. The move towards online
teaching can be implemented in two phases. In the initial phase, the course teachers should
manage to connect their students to any of the readily available online platforms just to render
student counseling services and conduct homework, assignments, quizzes and other forms of
assessment to prepare them for exams to be taken immediately after the calamitous situation is
over. That must be better than nothing. And in the final phase the universities should fully
develop an online education infrastructure professionally and permanently which will run in
parallel with the prevalent traditional system. They may be used both separately and jointly as
the situation demands to keep all the universities running. By taking this initiative education
system will not be paused and career planning will not be hampered during this pandemic
situation. Because still now we don’t know when this situation will normalize but we have to
continue thinking about our career planning along with the education system.
