COVID-19: THE IMPACT OF PANDEMIC ON EMOTIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL CONFLICTS IN MALAYSIA – A LITERATURE REVIEW
Authors: Mohamad Zin Siti Aisyah , Raja Ismail Raja Nurul Hafizah , Rozali Wan Nur Ainna Waheda , Mohd Isa Nor Kalsum 
Published: January 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic is a major concern to the community around the
globe at the moment and the World Health Organization (WHO) records a total
of more than 200 million cases worldwide. The spread of the COVID-19
pandemic has had a huge impact on the world community, especially in
Malaysia, from the socio-economic aspect that leads to mental health issues.
The implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) to Malaysians is
aimed at breaking the chain of pandemics by making social distancing which
began on March 18, 2020, has changed the societal life pattern, especially for
adolescents. If it is not managed properly, emotional conflicts such as
depression, stress, anxiety, and untreated panic attacks can even affect the
mental health of adolescents. There are numerous recent studies on the
COVID-19 pandemic have been conducted by researchers from around the
world. The COVID-19 outbreak has also affected the education sector in the
country. Face-to-face learning cannot be conducted, hence, requires students
to learn from home. The Ministry of Education in Malaysia has introduced a
new platform to help students to continue their learning through an online
learning system. Online learning has its own pros and cons. In these
challenging times, the field of education is not falling behind in undergoing a
transformation towards a more advanced and systematic learning process.
Therefore, online learning is the best way to ensure that students do not fall behind in their studies even when they are at home. However, the
implementation of online learning has the potential to affect the mental health
of students such as feelings of stress, fear, anxiety, worry, and depression due
to not being able to balance the use of computers during learning and to
complete assignments as well as internet data problems. A study by the World
Health Organization (WHO) found that the number of victims of depression
worldwide is estimated to reach 300 million people and the average is of
adolescents. This is the silent killer of this generation which is the pillar and
hope of the country, therefore it should be given attention and proper treatment.
A literature review through the content analysis method is used in this paper to
look at the challenges and solutions to the recovery of emotional conflict and
mental health. Thus, this paper aims to look at the challenges of this pandemic
exploring scientifically the impact of COVID-19 especially in terms of
emotional and mental health as well as the impact on the national education
system. The attitude of "prevent before it gets worse" is very critical and needs
to be given serious attention by the community in facing the escalating
challenges during this COVID-19. An understanding of the effects of emotions
could generate appropriate prevention measures and approaches that can be
implemented to ensure that emotional conflicts can be treated to save those
adolescents and inevitably to ensure the well-being of individuals affected by
the COVID-19 outbreak.