Facing COVID-19 Pandemic Learning/Teaching Challenges: Lessons and Perspectives from Malian Universities

Abstract:The global lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak affected, in many regards, education institutions' activities worldwide. In the Malian context, where in-class or face-to-face teaching/learning was standard, it led, to a significant degree, to major disruptions in the teaching/learning process. Due to the government's lack of official concerted strategies and mechanisms to mitigate education loss, Malian universities, separately, developed independent schemes as to address students' needs. This study aims at shedding light on the academic strategies adopted by Malian universities in facing the COVID pandemic. Based on a qualitative research method, our investigation covers exclusively public universities because, in terms of policies, private universities operate out of the governments control. This research is built on interviews covering key members of the education fields: deans, chancellors, heads of departments, and teachers. The data collected from this investigation give some insights into the government's anti-COVID plans nationwide and a glimpse of how public universities dealt with this crisis, and finally, some prospects for the future.