Implications of COVID-19 Pandemic for Higher Education Institutions’
Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery Mechanism (EPRRM)
Contingency Plan: Relating Issues to Tanzania
Abstract
The COVID-19 Pandemic began in China at the end of 2019 and spread
rapidly to become a global pandemic by the first quarter of 2020. Many
death incidences were reported in a short time before it was being
familiar to many nations in terms of practices for containment. In
response, many countries had to close down education institutions,
lockdown cities, and countries, and emphasize practices of new
lifestyles and behaviors thought to guarantee safety. Eventually,
students were the most affected groups among the nations. Particularly,
the impacts of the pandemic were realized in the teaching and learning
processes as well as changes in the practices of administration and
management of education services. The impacts were essentially felt by
students themselves, professors, instructors, teachers, and
educationists in managerial and administrative positions. The high
intensities of the impacts escalated as there were no contingency plans
to curb the sudden changes and lethality in the instant period of
pandemic encounters. The pandemic situation signified the demand for an
emergence preparedness, response, and recovery mechanism (EPRRM)
contingency plan to be put in place for systems of education. The
education EPRRM contingency plan would assist the education machinery in
higher learning institutions (HLIs) and other levels of learning to keep
in resilient and continuant teaching and learning processes in times of
crises