Schools opening this month: Dipu Moni

Education Minister Dipu Moni has said the government is going to resume in-person academic activities in all educational institutions this month.

The date for the reopening of educational institutions was scheduled to be finalised at a meeting of the National Technical Advisory Committee (NTAC) on Covid-19 last night. The meeting was set to begin at 10:00pm.

Speaking at a programme in Chandpur, Dipu Moni yesterday said, "We are yet to fix the date for reopening of educational institutions. We have a meeting with the advisory committee tonight to make a decision on this."

She said they would also talk with the prime minister about the matter. "But all students will have to maintain Covid health protocol."

The minister's comments came two days after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said educational institutions would reopen at the end of this month if the Covid-19 situation improved.

"We hope the situation will change [improve] by the end of this month and then we can reopen schools, colleges, and all other educational institutions," Hasina said at a programme marking the announcement of results of HSC and equivalent examinations of 2021.

Following a sharp rise in the Covid infection rate in the country, the government shut down all schools and colleges for two weeks from January 21. The closure was later extended to February 21.

However, Unicef on January 28 urged governments across the world to keep schools open to avert a learning catastrophe and put children back on the learning track.

Partial classroom teaching resumed in the country on September 12 last year after a 543-day closure caused by the pandemic. This was one of the longest school closures in the world.

As many as 39.63 lakh primary and 39 lakh secondary students are at the risk of learning loss due to the long school closure, according to a joint study by Power and Participation Research Centre and Brac Institute of Governance and Development, published on October 19 last year.

The closure left academic calendars in disarray.

The government cancelled Primary Education Completion Examinations and Junior School Certificate exams for 2020 and 2021 as well as the HSC exams of 2020.

Last year's SSC and HSC exams were held on curtailed syllabuses with fewer subjects.

Following the closure, the government launched TV education programmes through the state-run Sangsad Television channel for secondary and primary students. Later, it asked all schools to introduce online education.

Most of the students in urban areas have access to learning through the internet, but the digital divide has so far proved to be a great disadvantage for the underprivileged learners, mainly for a lack of devices and poor access to the internet.

At the end of last year, the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education asked all secondary schools to start giving assignments to students.