Contents

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Mohammed Derese Biru

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Citation:

Biru MD. Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Academic Performance of Natural and Computational Science Students, at Wolkite University, Ethiopia. Special Journal of Public Health, Nutrition, and Dietetics. 2021, 2(1): 1-10

Highpoints

• COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on education systems in Ethiopia
• Effects of COVID-19 on the student’s academic performance
• COVID-19 significantly impacted students academic performance

Abstracts

Background:

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the global education systems, affecting the individual social, mental, and psychological status of the community and forcing a global shut down of the schools.

Objective:

The study was designed to identify the effects of COVID-19 on the Academic performance of natural and computational science students at Wolkite University, Ethiopia.

Materials and Methods:

In this cross-sectional study, 86 students were selected using a stratified random sampling technique. The student’s department formed the strata and from each department, the selection was made by lottery method drawn without bias. Paired t-test, independent t-test, and ANOVA test were employed for analysis of data.

Results:

The average of students’ cumulative grade point average (CGPA) before and after COVID -19 were 3.016 ± 0.529 and 2.955 ± 0.558 respectively. The average family monthly income was (3380.23 ± 2596.23) and the average of students’ age was (22.41 ±1.51). The outcome of paired samples t-test between students cumulative grade point average after COVID -19 and before COVID -19 (p-value: 0.01; 95% CI: -0.11, -0.01) showed a significant mean difference.

The independent t-test for equality of means for cumulative grade point average after COVID-19 student stress status showed a significant mean difference (p-value: <0.0000; 95% CI: -0.76499,0-.33045). The ANOVA test on students’ cumulative grade point average after COVID -19 and before COVID -19 stratified by department, mothers’ education level, and father’s education level showed no statistically significant mean difference.

Conclusion:

COVID-19 significantly impacted the performance, income, and stress levels of the participating students. More studies are needed on a larger sample to establish a trend.

 Keywords:

Cumulative grade point average CGPA, COVID -19 Panadeamic, and Academic Performance

Addresses:

Wolkite University College of Natural and Computational Science Department of Statistics Wolkite, Ethiopia

Article history:

Received October 18, 2021: Accepted: December 13,  2021:  Published:  December 18, 2021

Correspondence:

Mohammed Derese Biru: Email: moh3md@gmail.com:

Distribution and usage license:

This open-access article is distributed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License seen in this link (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ). You are free to use, distribute, and reproduce this article in any medium, provided you give correct credit to the original author(s) and the source, including the provision of a link to the Creative Commons license website. Pls show any modification’s

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Introduction

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic spread quickly, affecting almost all countries and territories since it was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China [1]. All countries in the world taught, warned, and cautioned their citizen’s responsive care. The responsive care plans have involved handwashing, disinfecting, wearing face masks, physical distancing, and avoiding mass gatherings and assemblies. Lockdown and stay-at-home strategies have been and are still being done to tackle the transmission of the pandemic [1,2].

Based on the UNESCO report, at the end of April 2020, schools and different educational institutions were shut down in 186 counties. COVID -19 pandemic is overwhelming the functioning and outcomes of education systems, some of which were already stressed in many respects [3-5]. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged millions of learners, researchers, and scientists with new realities, findings, and new ways of learning, teaching, examining, communicating, and doing research.

The impact of COVID-19 on higher education has been incredible, and many universities attempted to apply operational flexibility to the crisis but the virus prevailed beyond expectation. COVID-19 was first confirmed in Ethiopia on 13 March 2020 marking the beginning of the pandemic in Ethiopia. [1].

Ethiopia has also seen unprecedented health, economic, and educational challenges since the onset of the pandemic. The closure of schools and universities has respectively put more than 30 million school students and a million tertiary students out of school for the last seven months [6].

When the educational institutions of Ethiopia were reopened after a seven-month closure, there were so many challenges in exploring new ways of delivering teaching and learning processes while still adhering to the guidelines of the COVID-19 protocol. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the academic performance of the students is not known at Wolkite University and may be needed to design effective strategic development agenda for the University going forward.

Objective:

This study aimed to identify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the academic performance of Natural and Computational Science students at Wolkite University.

Materials and Methods

Study setting and design

The study was conducted at Wolkite University which is one of the Ethiopian higher public Universities. It is located approximately 170 km from Addis Ababa to the south of Ethiopia in Gurage Zone. The study design was a cross-sectional study that was conducted from April 11, 2021, to August 22, 2021.

 Study population and variables

In this study, all the regular class students of Wolkite University in the Natural and Computational Science college were targeted. The cumulative grade point average after the COVID -19 pandemic of student results was the dependent variable.

The list of independent variables was: age of students, sex of students, residence, wearing a mask, washing hand by soap, keeping distance, COVID -19 previous test result, family’s death by COVID -19, department of students, average monthly income of the family student, previous semester achievement by (CGPA) before COVID -19 pandemic, father educational level, mother educational level, and COVID -19 test results.

Sample size, sampling techniques, and data collection process

The sample size of this study was determined by considering: significance level of 5%, marginal error of 10%, and the variance of the population were and finally a sample size of a total of 86 students was obtained [7,8]. In this stratified random sampling, the department formed the strata and from each department, the respondents were selected by lottery.

Primary data were collected from the respondents through a questionnaire and an interview. Data were collected from the students of Natural and Computational Science College; using a questionnaire and an interview guide that was prepared based on the objective of the study as was adopted from the previously published study [9-11].

Data processing and analysis

The data collected from each department was, analyzed using SPSS version 23. The results were presented using descriptive statistics (proportion, cross-tabulation). To identify the associated factors of the impact of COVID-19 on students’ academic performance paired t-test, ANOVA tests, and multiple linear regressions were employed at a 95% level of significance.

 Results  

Descriptive statistics

The descriptive results indicate that of students tested for COVID -19 was 18 (20.9%) and not tested for COVID -19 was 68 (79.1%). The results of these tests were either positive, negative, or system missing, that is (0 (0%),18 (20.9%), and 68 (79.1%)) depicting the number and percentage of students, respectively. Similarly, from the above table regarding the stress of students due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of students who were not stressed was 33 (38.4%), and stressed students were 53 (61.6%).

The number of students washing hands with soap daily and not washing hands was 59 (68.6%) and 27 (31.4%), respectively. According to the above information the students from the urban area were 40 (46.5%) and the rural were 46 (53.5%). From the sample size 86 statistics students were 26, the students wearing a mask and keeping distance were 70 and 57 respectively (Table 1).

Table 1 Frequency distribution for categorical variables

The average age of the student was 22.41 with the highest age of the students being 26 years and the minimum age being 20 years. The average monthly income of the student’s family was 3380.23birr, the highest average monthly income of a student’s family is 11000 Birr and the minimum monthly income of the students is 400 Birr.

The average CGPA of students before COVID -19 was 3.0162. The highest average CGPA of the students before COVID -19 was 4.00 and the minimum was 2.05 respectively. The average CGPA of the students after COVID -19 is 2.9555. The highest and minimum average CGPA of the students after COVID -19 was 4.00 and 1.77 respectively. The variance of the student’s family average monthly income was 6740428.181 (Table 2).

Table 2 Frequency for continuous variable

Dependent-T-test (Paired Sample T-Test)

Based on the dependent-test result it can be concluded that at 5% of significance level we have enough evidence to say there is a significant mean difference between CGPA before and after COVID -19 pandemic based on the above result (Table 3).

Table 3  Paired Sample t-test between CGPA After COVID -19 and CGPA Before COVID -19

MD: Mena Difference   SD: Standard Deviation   SE: Standard Error    CI: Confidence Interval DF: Degree of Freedom

 Independent Samples Test

Based on the Independent Samples Test result it can be shown that at a 5% of significance level there was enough evidence to say that a significant mean difference between student stress status and their CGPA after the COVID-19 pandemic (Table 4).

Table 4 T-test for Equality of Means of CGPA after COVID-19 by Student Stress Status

MD: Mena Difference   SD: Standard Deviation   SE: Standard Error    CI: Confidence Interval DF: Degree of Freedom

ANOVA Test

The ANOVA result reveals that at 5% of significance level, it can be seen there was enough evidence to say there was no mean difference. We also, there was no significant mean difference between students CGPA before the COVID -19

pandemic and student’s department, mothers’ education level, and father’s education level. Similarly, the same result shows from Table 4 that there was no significant mean difference between student CGPA after the COVID -19 pandemic and student’s department, mothers’ education level, and father’s education level (Table 5)

Table 5 ANOVA test on Students CGPA

Discussion

The current study showed that the COVID-19 pandemic affected the academic performance of students and there is a difference in the average of students CGPA before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The finding is in agreement with previous studies, which reported that COVID -19 has a high impact on dental medical students, medical students, and radiology trainees [12-16].

The academic performance of students of Natural and Computational Science at Wolkite University Ethiopia before COVID-19 and after COVID-19 pandemic was identified and shown to have no significant difference by department, mothers’ education level, and father’s education level. The study findings are in line with other findings conducted in different parts of the world like studies conducted in Bench-Sheko Zone, Southwest Ethiopia, Italy [17,18],

Canada, and others conducted in multi countries: Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, and Egypt [19,20]. This might be due to governments around the world having either temporarily closed or implemented localized closures of educational institutions affecting over 60% of the student population worldwide [3].

During the 1^st and second waves of the pandemic, many countries worldwide introduced different methods and learning platforms to avoid any kind of personal contact. [3]. Universities also minimized gatherings and suspended or canceled all in-person teaching activities to decrease the rapid spread of the virus. Thus, several educational institutions have switched to online teaching and learning processes for both undergraduate and graduate students to minimize the contact.  This online learning is new and strange to many students in the developing world and may have impacted the students’ academic performance [21].

This study identified a significant mean difference in the performance of students when the stressed and non-stressed students were compared after the COVID-19 pandemic. The finding was consistent with other studies conducted. After the discovery of the COVID -19 for the first time in China Wuhan City; the closure of schools and universities due to the virus and the subsequent lockdown of towns and cities to slow the spread of the virus was not good for learners.

The study revealed that 22.2%, 39.6%, and 40.2% of the respondents experienced stress, anxiety, and depression respectively in response to the COVID-19 pandemic-related closure of school systems. This result suggests that the coronavirus has a significant impact on students which is directly related to academic performance [22,23].

As the world struggles to pick its pieces together, family economic and social background, shattered by the pandemic, a factor known to impact education and cognitive abilities of students at all levels [24] should also be improved to assist humans in all aspects of human endeavors so that we can face the challenges that threaten our corporate existence.

Though the virus continues to evolve with too many unknowns and questions regarding how best to keep students safe, to overcome the pandemic and its effects, a united multidisciplinary approach must be adopted to effectively harness our collective capabilities

Conclusion

COVID-19 significantly impacted the performance, income, and stress levels of the participating students. More studies are needed on a larger sample to establish a trend

Acknowledgments

To students of the College of Natural and Computational Science and data collectors for the great support.

 Ethical issue:  

A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey involving informed consent of University students did not need another ethical approval in our settings, hence none was provided at the time of submission and publication of this manuscript

Funding:

Not funded

Conflict of interest:

The authors declare no conflicts of interest

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