GLOBAL EFFECTS OF COVID-19

COVID-19 has started to spread all over the world when it existed in China at the beginning of 2020. So what is COVID-19? COVID-19 which is known as “Coronavirus” in China is an epidemic, means that easily passes through human to human.  There are different sights about how COVID-19 has existed. Researchers say that first contact started with a person drinking bat soup. So the reason for the epidemic related to the sick bat. Firstly, COVID-19 did not have the ability to pass through human to human; however, it gained this ability later due to arrangements on its DNA. When it gained this ability, it has started to affect the whole world. Therefore, there are economic and educational effects of the spread of COVID-19 in terms of countries.

Firstly, COVID-19 has affected whole countries’ economies. Countries’ economies mainly depend on tax revenues, imports and exports, tourism, sale of valuable raw materials, weapons technological stuff, and private sector issues. Governments have experienced problems on each one since the epidemic occurred because governments’ boundaries were closed, imports and exports were postponed, tourism activities, sale of weapons, and raw material sales were stopped. In brief, there are two results of the economic effects of the spread of COVID-19. The first result is related to production (manufacturing) and sale. Let’s tackle the production and sale problem. Manufacturing employees haven’t gone to work since the quarantine process started. Companies have started to layoffs and other options such as unpaid holiday and job-sharing. Even the employees that went to their works were not able to be productive. Not only private companies but also government-based companies have started to layoff options. Valuable raw materials and value-added goods manufacturing have stopped. So, it has become a hard situation to find value-added goods to sell to other countries in terms of creating additional income for governments. Another result is external borrowing. Governments have started to external borrowing due to their citizens’ pressures. They got many loans, and these loans have effected all economic indicators such as unemployment rates, exchange rates, and GDPs (Gross Domestic Products.) Some of them got these loans for the short term with low-interest rates while some of them got these loans for the long term with high-interest rates.

Apart from the economic effects, COVID-19 has also caused educational effects. Different types of Educational Institutions have started to implement Distance Education since March 2020. Distance Education has many disadvantages in terms of necessary items and the quality of education. The first result is related to getting the necessary conditions. Students need to have computers, mobile phones or tablet computers with an internet connection. Otherwise, they are not able to connect their online courses. Students who do not have these kinds of opportunities due to their income issues cannot learn anything from their teachers. It causes discrimination among students. On the other hand, the second result is related to the quality of education. The quality of distance education is not the same as in face to face education. There is a lack of discipline. So, students do not pay attention enough. It leads to wrong or incomplete learning and distraction. In the face to face education, there are some prohibited activities such as eating, usage of electronic devices, talking with others. In contrast, there is no prohibition of activities in distance learning. Hence, students can easily be distracted.

To sum up, there are economic and educational effects of the spread of COVID-19 in terms of countries. COVID-19 has effected countries’ economies in two ways. Firstly, the manufacturing of value-added goods has stopped due to quarantine applications. So, governments could not find valuable and value-added goods to sell such as military and technological stuff. On the other hand, most of them have started to external borrowing with high-interest rates. It has affected almost all of the economic indicators. When we look at educational effects, we are facing with quality and inequality problems. Quality of education in distance learning is not the same as in face to face education. Moreover, some students do not have the necessary conditions for distance learning such as a computer, internet connection. It leads to discrimination among students.

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