Impact of COVID-19 on performance of college and university graduate students: Implications for science education

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the academic performance of colleges and Kotebe Metropolitan University students in terms of the Internet access, resource availability, and students’ perception of e-learning. The study also described the concerns of students, parents, and teachers related to the circumstances caused by social isolation and the perspectives of teachers and parents with regard to remote or online learning. This study adopted a mixed research design. For data collection, survey questionnaires, which were conducted on a total population of n=350, and semi-structured interviews were used with department heads and stream heads. In addition, simple random sampling was used for all instructors from the college, university, and students from the college of teachers’ education. According to the study’s findings, there was a lack of the Internet access, a lack of ICT resource availability, and a lack of online competency among students and teachers throughout the epidemic. The findings of this study confirm the readiness and motivation of teachers to advance their knowledge and skills, as well as to contribute with the aim of improving the quality of education. The findings also confirmed that COVID-19 comes with both challenges and opportunities for the Ethiopian education system.