Student re-engagement after a long interval of Covid-19

Nature dislikes empty spaces. It's as simple as taking out the water from a glass, and there's still air in there. Similarly, misdeeds may creep in if someone avoids their allocated life and livelihood job for an extended period. The primary work of a student's life is to study. It comes with a daily work routine such as waking up early in the morning and going to school, doing own lessons on various scheduled subjects, preparing for the next day's study, practising during sports, and more.

However, our students have been absent from school for an extended period since last year. Not only was schooling disrupted, but also personal, familial, social, and religious activities. Although there were just a few courses available online, the students' lives were severely disrupted. They drifted away from their daily routines. They were put under house arrest and were not allowed to go to class or do their regularly scheduled duties.

During this time, they have spent most of their time in a negative environment. The housebound students have spent most of the time with their smartphone, computer, or television screens. In the name of social communication apps, many of them were involved in various anti-social activities. Constantly trying to make their representations more glamorous in the virtual world has made real-life activities more colourless.
Addiction to social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other games wasted their invaluable talent and time. Time should be used properly, or it will be wasted because time cannot be preserved. Outside of the virtual world, in reality, they were surrounded by a terrible panic. The number of corona attacks and deaths in our country and abroad has made them sad and worried.

Social bonds were completely broken, long time away from meeting friends, chatting, and playing sports. Just as house arrest has made their physical condition fragile, this negative environment has made them mentally ill. By the grace of God, the situation in our country has returned to normal. Some useful decisions of the present government have played a very effective role.

In this scenario, every one of us, particularly students, needs a plan of action for reviving our physical and mental health in this new endeavour. There are a few points in the following which might be helpful to the students in accepting the challenge to restart and recovery.
1. Making a routine that will be worth following which should not be unnecessarily complicated.
2. Making a menu of balanced meals and stick to it.
3. Going to bed at 11 pm and getting up very early in the morning.
4. Doing exercise regularly.
5. Spending quality time with family and friends.
6. Making a conscious effort to stay away from all kinds of social media apps.
7. Avoiding negative emotions such as apathy, laziness but focusing on concentration of own work.
8. Preventing time wastage playing mobile games, watching videos and songs by only using your phone for emergencies.
9. Communicating with teachers and seeking their opinion, when necessary.
10. Preparing to compete against ownself and keep excellent relationships with everyone.
Abul Hasnat Rubel, Associate
Professor, Department of Physics,
Jagannath University