ABSTRACT
This study investigated the impact of covid-19 on youths in Vietnam. The study focused on the students in TUAF. The Covid-19 pandemic which started in December 2019 killed millions of people worldwide. This study used a descriptive survey design method. The survey research design was used because the study relied on primary data collected from sampled respondents. The population of this study consisted of students in Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (TUAF). The total population of the study was 478 students, collected from the class attendance of students from the various departments. The researcher utilized the Taro Yamane formula to evaluate the sample size of the study to arrive at a sample size of 218. The main instrument for data collection used in this study was the self-structured questionnaire. The questionnaire used a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. Data analysis is a continuous procedure that happens all through a research. The study employed SPSS 19.0 in analyzing the responses from respondents and the results were presented in tables, frequencies, and percentages. The findings of the study showed that the respondents had an excellent knowledge of Covid-19 among selected youths in TUAF. Also, the study showed that Covid-19 had adverse effects on the education and academic performance of the youths in TUAF. Lastly, preventive measures for Covid-19 such as regular sanitation with alcohol-based sanitizer, use of face mask and were applied among the youths in TUAF. The study recommended that interventions comprising health literacy and information programmes, and organizing community wide awareness campaign should be targeted at youths and community residents at all levels to ensure better perception towards adhering to the preventive measures of COVID-19.
Keywords: Covid-19, corona virus, epidemic, pandemic, sanitation, preventive measures, education, academic performance.
1.0Â Introduction
In December 2019, there were emergence of some cases of the corona virus that originated in Wuhan City according to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2020). The causative pathogen was named the novel corona-virus because it was the first of its kind (Huang et al., 2020). The corona virus disease outbreak also known as COVID-19 impacted negatively on all the sector of the economy (Stevens et al., 2020). Therefore, the educational sector was no exception. The outbreak of this infectious disease led to a global school closure (Bhagat et al., 2020). This was due to the mode of transmission of the corona virus. So many safety measures were adhered to, in order to reduce the spread of the disease (Malhotra et al., 2020).
In Vietnam, COVID-19 pandemic affected their educational sector, as recognized by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Study revealed that Covid-19 has spread exponentially in so many countries which made the government to enforce a law for strict quarantine measures, social distancing, use of facemask, and personal hygiene using a sanitizer (Nazar et al., 2020).
Due to the role education plays in the growth of the economy, it is regarded as a pillar to the development of a country. The education sector has faced different challenges such as change of curriculum, closing date and so on (Al-Quteimat et al., 2020). All these led to the researcher carrying out a research on the impact of COVID-19 on the youths of Vietnam. This topic was selected because students were regarded as the people that suffered the most during the pandemic period. For instance, students had to pause offline education and adopt the online educations system thereby, losing motivation to study. According to a report carried out by Nemati et al. (2020), the performance of students after the Covid-19 pandemic dropped as compared to previous years.
