Schools to stay closed for two more weeks

Schools and colleges are set to be closed for two more weeks after February 6 due to the high Covid infection rate in the country.

In the 24 hours to 8:00am yesterday, the positivity rate was 27.43 percent, down from 29.17 percent the previous day.

"We have decided that in-person classes at educational institutions will remain closed for two more weeks based on the recommendation of experts as the coronavirus infection rate is still around 30 percent," said Education Minister Dipu Mani in a statement yesterday.

Earlier on January 21, the government had closed all schools, colleges and equivalent educational institutions for two weeks.

She hopes that the government will be able to restore normalcy in educational institutions and resume in-person classes as soon as the positivity rate drops.

Meanwhile, 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.

"As the Omicron variant of Covid-19 continues its spread all over the world, we urge governments to do everything in their power to keep it from further disrupting children's education. Keep schools open," said Unicef Executive Director Henrietta Fore.

An estimated 616 million children are currently affected by full or partial school closures, she said.

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.