Implications of COVID-19 Pandemic for Higher Education Institutions' Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery Mechanism (EPRRM) Contingency Plan: Relating Issues to Tanzania

The COVID-19 Pandemic began in China at the end of 2019 and spread rapidly to become a global pandemic by the first quarter of 2020. Many death incidences were reported in a short time before it was being familiar to many nations in terms of practices for containment. In response, many countries had to close down education institutions, lockdown cities, and countries, and emphasize practices of new lifestyles and behaviors thought to guarantee safety. Eventually, students were the most affected groups among the nations. Particularly, the impacts of the pandemic were realized in the teaching and learning processes as well as changes in the practices of administration and management of education services. The impacts were essentially felt by students themselves, professors, instructors, teachers, and educationists in managerial and administrative positions. The high intensities of the impacts escalated as there were no contingency plans to curb the sudden changes and lethality in the instant period of pandemic encounters. The pandemic situation signified the demand for an emergence preparedness, response, and recovery mechanism (EPRRM) contingency plan to be put in place for systems of education. The education EPRRM contingency plan would assist the education machinery in higher learning institutions (HLIs) and other levels of learning to keep in resilient and continuant teaching and learning processes in times of crises