Pandemic Preparedness and Techno Stress among Faculty of DAIs in Covid-19

Abstract

Amid COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan, the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan announced the closure of all public and private universities and Higher Education Institutes from mid of March 2020. The paper highlights the issues faced by the university faculty in terms of techno-stress due to a lack of pandemic preparedness. The data gathered for this research is qualitative using the exploratory methodology. The methods of the study are In-depth interviews and FGDs. Interview guide and FGD Checklist are tools employed to gather data from the faculty of sixteen Pakistani universities which is sorted thematically and illustrated through descriptive statistics. The findings of the study suggest that the global pandemic has seriously affected the higher education sector in Pakistan. The private universities and the heavily funded public universities have taken off in a bullish mode. However, the public sector universities are coping up in a bearish trend. The faculty's response also corresponds with the transition to online teaching. Besides the university's efforts to ease out learning through an online interface, the majority of the faculty is feeling overburdened with additional responsibilities about online teaching. The study highlights the gap between policymaking and the on-ground situation of the universities in terms of online readiness.