COVID-19, Online Education and Role of Mentoring in Developing Economies—A Theoretical Build-Up with an Empirical Overhaul

Human civilization has gone through a pandemic every hundred years but the ongoing one, named as COVID-19, has surpassed all the previous ones regarding severity on the economies and on activities of different sectors. Although the world has started to heal gradually, known as “New Normal” the prolonged impact of the pandemic and the possibility of its recurrence cannot be ignored, rather rightfully demands serious attention. Apart from economic activities, the sector that has suffered the most is the Education sector. The sector that felt comfortable in the traditional “classroom teaching” method, suddenly took a forceful paradigm shift to “Online Education”. This was inevitable, to continue the teaching–learning process. But whether this shift was smooth enough or not, for both teachers and students, is a serious issue. Mentoring is one such thing that can take place throughout the day and beyond normal teaching hours. In this chapter, we shall build a model to show how effective mentoring by teachers can help students overcome difficulties and attend classes regularly, even in the pandemic through online mode. Then, the model is supported by an empirical study, where we shall show that mentoring can actually increase the willingness of attending classes, even in the areas that suffer from digital divide. It finds that online learning or even mixed mode of learning would certainly continue for a considerable period with the coordination of mentoring.