Full-fledged classes on hold till March

The government will observe the Covid-19 situation till March before resuming full-fledged classes at schools, Education Minister Dipu Moni said yesterday.

"If the Covid situation doesn't worsen by March [2022], educational institutions will be able to resume full-fledged classes. Till then, they will be run on a limited scale," she added.

Earlier on September 12, primary and secondary schools partially resumed classes after remaining shut since March 17, last year.

Speaking on the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus, which is spreading fast across many parts of the globe, including Europe and America, the education minister said, "We will need to be patient and remain alert."

The minister said this while visiting a printing press in Dhaka's Matuail to inspect preparations for the delivery of free textbooks for the next academic year.

Dipu Moni said the distribution of textbooks on the first day of January is still uncertain due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation.

She, however, hoped that more than 95 percent of the textbooks will reach primary and secondary schools across the country by December 31.

"The rest of the books will be delivered by January 7. Students will get their copies in time," she assured.

Dipu Moni said the binding of over 17 crore textbooks has already been completed, though some still remain unfinished.

She also said officials of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) are visiting the press twice a week. Printing is going on in 200 presses -- 158 for printing books of secondary schools and 42 for primary schools, the minister added.

The minister also said action will be taken if the supplier printing company provides substandard textbooks, reports UNB.

For a decade, children have started their new school year with the smell of freshly printed textbooks, but this may change for all pre-primary and secondary students this year.

The government is set to distribute over 34.70 crore textbooks to over 4.17 crore pre-primary, primary and secondary students for the 2022 academic year.