Opportunities, challenges and solutions to the online education during the COVID-19 pandemic in Afghan higher education institutions

Abstract

Online learning, which is needed more than ever today, plays an important role in the educational development of a society. Through online education, millions of students around the world are getting their education and have achieved new heights in this field. The need has been exacerbated by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused many challenges to the education sector in the country. The learning process of tens of thousands of students was disrupted and caused a major setback in teaching methods, learning mechanisms, and schedules. To prevent the virus from spreading further, the ministries of education (MoE) and higher education (MoHE) in the country, like other countries, tried to provide online learning opportunities to their students. In order to find online learning opportunities, challenges, and solutions, we have collected and analyzed the views of dozens of students and teachers in this research. This research paper discusses the situation in terms of infrastructure, public awareness, cultural and economic aspects, as well as how to coordinate the curriculum in order to promote online education in Afghanistan during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the final section of the research, a number of recommendations have been made for the better development and management of online and e-learning as a whole in Afghanistan.