COVID-19 Pandemic: The Impact of Online-Schooling on Students' Engagement with School Work and Physical Activity

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced an unprecedented global shutdown of many sectors, including education.COVID-19 school closures in Bangladesh started on March 17, 2020, and continued into 2021, affecting about 38 million students and close to one million teachers. Schools in Bangladesh were closed to both students and teachers. Educational activities were remotely directed via digital devices (online schooling). This article explores how homeschooling has affected students' active engagement with school work and physical activity in Grades 1–10 in Bangladesh. This study used a qualitative approach to describe its aims and objectives clearly; database sources, web search engines, direct observation, and relevant documents were used to obtain data for this study. It is recommended that the aspect of "teaching" be weakened and the aspect of "learning" be strengthened during this online-schooling phase to improve students' interest in learning and active engagement in schoolwork. There is also a clear positive relation between time students spent being physically active during a school day and their attention and effort toward schoolwork.