Sadness, Negativity, and Uncertainty in Education During COVID-19 on Social Media

The global COVID-19 pandemic increased social media usage to obtain information and to share concerns, feelings, and emotions, turning it into a prolific field of research through which it is possible to understand how audiences are coping with the multitude of recent challenges. This paper presents results from a social media analysis of 61532 education-related news headlines posted by the major daily news provider in Portugal, Sic Notícias, on Facebook, from January to December 2020. We focus on how the news impacted on audiences’ emotional response and discourse, and we analyze the key issues of the most commented news content. The results show a prevailing sadness among audiences and a very negative discourse all throughout 2020, with a high degree uncertainty being expressed. The main concerns revolved around parents supporting children in their first remote learning endeavors, financial sustainability, the lack of devices, the disinfection of schools, and the students’ mobility, particularly in the non-higher education context.

ESTIMATION OF FINANCIAL STABILITY OF AGRARIAN ENTERPRISES IN UKRAINE

In this paper the system of factors influencing the formation of financial solvency was investigated, the financial sustainability of agricultural enterprises of Ukraine was evaluated, and an approach was developed to define and help ensure the financial sustainability of enterprises in the face of contemporary economic and market challenges. According to the research, the main principles for maintaining financial sustainability are: responsiveness to internal and external changes; governance systems; risk management; analysis of financial ratios; real assessment of the financial solvency of the enterprise; integration with the overall management system; orientation towards achieving the strategic goals of the enterprise; use of qualitative methods to inform financial decisions in the face of uncertainty and risk.

EFFECTS OF MOBILE BANKING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF ISLAMIC MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS IN BANGLADESH

This study examines the effect of mobile banking on performance of Islamic Microfinance Institutions (IMFIs) in Bangladesh which includes their efficiency and internal operations, staff productivity, communication, breadth and depth of outreach, financial sustainability and portfolio quality. A questionnaire survey method was used for collecting the relevant data (n=200) from the selected sample representing the study population. The findings of this study reveals that Mobile Banking (MB) has a significant and positive effect on the performance of Islamic Microfinance Institutions (IMFIs) in Bangladesh, and it is perceived from the results that MB could significantly improve the performance of IMFIs by increasing the efficiency, staff productivity, communication, outreach and financial sustainability except portfolio quality.

Is Village-Level Microfinance Beneficial at the Community, Enterprise and Household Levels? A Case Study from Indonesia

The local governments of the Riau Province of Indonesia had been given the mandate to use UED-SP as a microfinance programme to serve the financial needs of the rural poor, to promote rural economic activities and to create employment opportunities. Despite the village-level microfinance programme was able to accomplish rural outreach with financial sustainability (Rifai et al., 2019), there is limited evidence to validate its real impact on the rural MFI participants at three different levels of village development. The findings reveal that microloans appear to have positive impacts on the microfinance participants at the community level, at the level of micro-enterprise and at the household level. The rural MFIs should be targeting this village segment of the rural poor, while the local governments should provide the support to warrant deeper outreach.