Teaching Case: Covid-19: Beauty And The Beast

Abstract

It was a calm and quiet Monday evening of March 16, 2020 at Desa Jati neighborhood. Maria, a final-year undergraduate student at a local university in Nilai has been staying in that neighborhood for almost four years. Since December 2019, everyone was talking about COVID-19 and the speed at which the virus was spreading is shocking. Maria and her housemates, Joyah and Ecah were having dinner when the Malaysian Prime Minister (PM) announced the movement control order (MCO) in response to COVID-19 pandemic in the country. Maria was eagerly waiting for the announcement since this deadly virus outbreak. Following the MCO announcement, the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) urged all universities to send the students back to their hometown on March 17, 2020. In a rush, Maria, Joyah, and Ecah quickly packed their bags and hurried to Terminal Bersepadu (TBS) to take a bus to get to their hometown. The TBS is one of the main express bus terminals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The TBS is more like a state-of-the-art airport than a bus station for all south-bound, eastern, and north-bound bus express passengers. Unlike older bus terminals, the TBS is a highly modern bus terminal. It is equipped with the latest technologies and amenities to help bus travelers. There was a massive crowd of people at TBS, but they managed to get their tickets home. Maria whispered to herself ‘this pandemic will surely end very soon, and life will be back to normal”. She was worried about her future. Moreover, she will be graduating in just a few months. Maria whispered to herself: “What if the virus stays for a long time. How am I going to find a job after graduated?”