The life of a student is demanding, no matter if the student is in elementary school or completing a university degree. School life revolves around tests, evaluations, assignments and routine schedules filled with classes, where the students’ heads are stuffed with reams of information.
Although postsecondary students often spend much of their days sitting, they are absorbing, discussing and writing notes on concepts delivered from lecturers. Apart from money issues, mental exhaustion, anxiety and sugared-caffeine rushes define the lives of university students as they rush across campuses to their classes.
Unlike elementary and high school students, the majority of postsecondary students have chosen to enroll into their courses with plans to enlighten inner-passions and mould future careers. With the pandemic’s arrival, most courses in the world’s universities are being delivered online – this is the best compromise. Even so, many students have been forced to abandon their campuses, which have transformed into forbidden zones.
Most university students are lacking personal access to professors, they’re shut off from libraries and labs for research on projects. Students are unable to socialize and talk over subjects with friends between classes, which is another essential part of learning. These are sad times, but in the wake of the pandemic, school administrators had no choice but to close all schools until the COVID-19 crisis ended.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson – himself a victim of COVID-19 – said he was obligated to safeguard nearly 8 million pupils in England by sending them back home from school on March 18 – this action represented the first nationwide school closure in modern British history. The prime minister’s announcement reverberated through Britain’s universities and colleges.
“Following the Prime Minister’s announcement, the following decisions have been made: Bath Spa University is working towards moving to online provision and becoming a virtual university from Monday 23, March until the end of this academic year. Any university events planned for March or April have been cancelled, this includes exhibitions, performances and face-to-face meetings/conferences,” read a Bath Spa Alumni letter from March 20.
Many Canadian universities are addressing the additional problems faced by students as their 2020 academic year is mangled into bits. The University of Regina asked the community to help them support the students whose lives and finances have been crushed by the effects of COVID-19.
“Due to COVID-19, so many of our hardworking students – some of whom hold down not just one, but several part-time jobs – have had their hours cut or no longer have those jobs to go to at all,” said Dr. Vianne Timmons, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Regina. “They are struggling to put food on the table, never mind find the funds to continue with their studies.”
The coronavirus ruined the school year for billions, but the disease is deadly and contagious, so all postsecondary institutions on the globe should be closed until the pandemic ends. But in the United States, a school decided to reopen in March anyways, bucking the worldwide trend. On March 24, Kenya Evelyn reported Jerry Falwell Jr. – the president of Liberty University in Lynchburg Virginia – encouraged the school’s 5,000 students to return to campus. Officials verified the evangelical institution planned to disobey nationwide calls for mandatory school closures by reopening their doors.
However, less than week later on March 30, Evelyn said at least one student returning to Liberty University last week tested had positive for COVID-19 according to the Christian school’s lead physician. “Liberty will be notifying the community as deemed appropriate and required by law,” Falwell told the New York TImes.
Although the disease has statistically favoured older males with pre-existing medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease), anyone can catch COVID-19, even healthy, young university students. At this time, mass gatherings are discouraged all over the world for a reason. Flattening the curve doesn’t half describe what the world should do together. Somehow, we’ve got to unify and stamp out the devastating effects caused by the coronavirus. Students must engage in online learning and other means for the rest of 2020, because until this pandemic has ebbed, social distancing is essential for survival.
