Covid-19 has brought the entire world to a grinding halt. From the burgeoning tourism industries of Europe to South Asia's labour market, everything came to a virtual standstill because of this respiratory virus. 

Although 2021 brought the prospect of a better year with multiple vaccines for the virus, it seems highly unlikely that the situation will go back to normal any time soon. 

Since learners cannot physically go to schools, colleges, universities and other institutions, the only way they can learn and enhance their skills is through the online courses that many e-learning platforms offer.

These sites offer skill-developing and academic courses to prepare the learners for  university admission tests or maybe for a new employment opportunity. 

Here are five Bangladeshi sites that can help the learners to develop their skills.

1. 10-Minute School: A modern platform for the contemporary learners

Started by entrepreneur and influencer Ayman Sadiq back in 2015, 10 Minute School has grown into the largest Bangladeshi e-learning site over the years. It has taught over 1.5 million young aspirants in a multitude of subjects.

Initially, they started with a YouTube channel where they uploaded educational videos. 10 Minute School has now  grown into a major online learning platform with its website and app with over 19,400 videos and close to 50,000 quizzes!

The platform allows students to engage in learning through a plethora of online contents including courses from Class 1-12 as well as courses for university admission tests and job recruitment tests. People can also buy and download interactive e-books from the site.

The e-books allow the learners to mark important sections and also search for the relevant videos explaining tough topics from the 10 Minute School's video library. 

These also provide the students to check their improvement through online quizzes. 

The platform has been sponsored by Robi Axiata Limited and has worked with Bangladeshi Ministry of Posts, Telecommunication and Information Technology to enhance e-learning in Bangladesh.

With both free and paid educational contents coupled with an easy-to-access e-learning site, 10 Minute School could be an excellent platform for Bangladeshi learners to go for.

2. Shikkok Batayon: A Teaching platform for the Teachers!

Shikkhok Batayon is a government-run e-learning site for Bangladeshi academicians.  

It's mainly for the teachers of primary, secondary and higher secondary level.

The site allows these teachers to upload and download educational contents creating a vast library of videos, presentations, pictures and other educational contents. 

In the few years since its inception, the site has already gathered over 44,000 educational videos, over 2,14,000 presentations as well as many writings and pictures helping hundreds of thousands of teachers from all across the nation to develop their skills in subjects relating to Science, Arts and Commerce.

The fact that teachers create the slides, explanation videos and articles that Shikkhok Batayon provides for other teachers is very convenient. Since the teachers understand how students can be taught better and the chapters can be explained better, their contents greatly help other teachers. 

Also, the platform acknowledges and rewards teachers who upload the best contents or performs the best in an uploaded class video creating more incentives for better content, leading to better learning.

Although it is created by the Government for teachers, Shikkhok Batayon and its contents can be accessed by everyone providing a good destination for Bangladeshi learners who wish to learn from online platforms free of cost!

3. StudyPress: 'Automating' learning to combat the curse of unemployment

StudyPress is one of the most popular e-learning platforms of Bangladesh that specialises solely on job recruitment tests. With the platform's website as well as its application providing job circulars, regular questions for exams and chapter-wise discussions, StudyPress is helping over 1,19,000 young job aspirants online.

The site also provides opportunities for the learners to go through previous BCS (Bangladesh Civil Service) and Bank recruitment test questions as well as specific discussions for things that the learners might struggle with.

Just as the site lets the students sit for preliminary job tests, It also allows the learners to check their own mistakes and errors from previous exams which may help them rectify those mistakes and check their progress over time. 

StudyPress's online contents, techniques for mathematical problems and English questions along with the easy-to-understand interface are good reasons for the young Bangladeshi job aspirants to check the platform out.

4. Repto Education Centre: A destination for Bangladeshi online content creators and freelance-aspirants

Bangladesh has a huge potential in the freelancing and online content creation market. Repto Education Centre is one of few platforms which offers online courses on these skills for aspirant freelancers.

The platform  has over 1,10,000 students. More than 500 e-teachers provide classes on almost 100 courses  

They have courses on android app development, website designing, video editing, illustration, etc. Courses, conducted by specialist teachers, include dozens of detailed lectures spanning many hours. It also guarantees jobs for skilled freelancers it helps create. 

The site offers these courses at an affordable price as well, with some of the courses offering 90 percent discount.

Since all these lectures and classes are taken in Bangla regarding the Bangladeshi students mostly, Repto Education Centre has become a major destination for Bangladeshi learners who aspires to be freelancers or online content creators in the coming days.

5. Amar Pathshala: Free education for all from any corner of the world

This Bangladeshi e-learning platform  has educational courses on a variety of subjects as well as the necessary contents for job aspirants, all free of cost.

Amar Pathshala has more than 12,000 videos on all subjects for primary, secondary and higher secondary level students as well as courses on professional and development skills. 

This site also provides news on relevant job circulars and other employment opportunities. And the best thing about it is, all of these contents in Amar Pathshala are free of cost.

The lessons are designed for both English and Bangla medium school students. 

Besides courses on academic subjects, they provide Japanese language learning courses as well. 

Amar Pathshala uploads its contents on YouTube and organises live streams for the learners as well. It could be a suitable platform for many in and outside of Bangladesh looking for a good e-learning platform. 

With the help of these e-learning  platforms, learners can acquire new skills or develop themselves professionally. And now, in this pandemic-ridden world, these e-learning sites have become significant for aspirant learners.