THE Covid-19 pandemic that is afflicting the world may have started as a disaster, but it has now brought a thousand lessons.

Virtual learning may not have been a wish or an option for those who think traditionally and orthodoxly about learning in the past. But, like it or not, it has become a norm in both the villages and the cities.

The strength of the wifi or data signal, whether strong or weak, will be the dividing line. This should not be a distinct line between groups in the city and those in the rural areas to avoid being marginalised from the learning and teaching process of today’s new norm.

Although the government has reinforced the wifi system and the country’s cybersecurity system, ongoing improvements are required.

While we may not be on a par with Russia in terms of vaccination and cybersecurity, if cyber hacking movies were previously thought to be generated in other developed countries, it now appears that Malaysia is equally talented. However, if not restrained, it could lead to disaster and exacerbate the country’s cyber problems.

This pandemic is completely altering the learning landscape and learning in countries around the world, from Malaysia to Russia.

Malaysia has been conducting virtual learning for a long time, since a few months after the first movement-control order was imposed in March last year.

However, the virtual learning scenario appears to be ongoing until now.

In fact, an increasing number of international and national conferences are being held online, which is necessary as a medium for effectively imparting knowledge and meets the annual performance appraisal requirements of lecturers.

Despite the fact that it is not face to face, the online conference is able to convey the sad stories of various national and global issues from numerous different academic disciplines, which, of course, are evolving and have even proposed alternative approaches to the crisis.

It is now up to the country’s betting policyholders to either fulfil their aspirations and hopes or all of the suggestions of scholars are viewed cynically.

Book publishers are seen moving to find international and foreign writers interested in publishing books at regional and global academic conferences.

This new opportunity is like a dream come true. If it is not realised, it can only be a dream that is not achieved within the framework of scholarship in the field of expertise, and knowledge is also not for those with high expectations but a lack of discipline and high commitment. After all, hope is still hope.

Eventually, all efforts are not in vain to gain a name, but rather in the hope that knowledge spreads and becomes a charity one day.

In a time of pandemics, because there may be less time constraints on moving, eating and socialising, perhaps scholars already have more hours and even encourage reading to find ideas to generate writing in indexed journals or not, popular articles, if the wait in leading journals is time consuming.

As a result, the writing is produced in the hope of educating the public, which also expand the public’s viewpoint.

However, even after a long period of time from when there was no vaccine to when there is a vaccine, law and medical schools remain closed for fear of creating clusters at workplaces and universities.

It was rumoured that some 1,000 more students would be infected with Covid-19 at the University of Nottingham in 2020, prompting the British prime minister to be heavily criticised for not looking after the welfare of the people and strengthening the country’s healthcare system.

However, even this year, when more and more vaccines are developed and produced by various countries such as China, the United States and Russia, the rate of vaccination in Malaysia remains relatively slow compared with Russia.

Russia’s Sputnik vaccine is said to be effective as law schools in Vladivostok have begun to open and face-to-face learning is now taking place.

While our university students, including international students, continue to conduct virtual classes, which are said to be a way to slow the spread of the virus because many more people have not been vaccinated, in public and local institutes across the north, central and south.

In Russia, wearing masks is required, but many students prefer to remove them during class, which can lead to the spread of the virus through the air. Lecturers have to remind them every 20 minutes to put on their masks. Classes are only conduct virtually for lecturers over 65 of age.

Most students would say they do not want to wear a mask because they do not think it would protect their health.

Nonetheless, learning continues to take place virtually in some districts of Russia, where the number of cases is as high as 1,000 per day

However, since this year, the Russians have been experiencing life, learning and conferences in person, and they are free to travel to Moscow from Vladivostok.

Before the Sputnik V vaccine was produced last September, they had conducted classes virtually.

God willing, in the future, Malaysia, while not yet on a par with Russia, will look for opportunities for vaccine research and development by empowering laboratories, resulting in a higher level of biosafety. – July 1, 2021.

* Noor Dzuhaidah Osman is a senior lecturer at Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Aleksandr Alekseenko is from the Faculty of Law of Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service and Wan Abdul Rahman Wan Idrus is a research assistant at Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.