No sign in sight of reopening educational institutions soon

The government has already reopened public and private offices, shops, garments and mass transports after the nationwide general holidays declared in late March to curb the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.

But the educational institutions, which were closed on March 17, is yet to receive any green signal from the government as the virus is still infecting people at an alarming rate.

There is no clear message from the Education Ministry about when the educational institutions will be reopened.

The ministry officials said the ministry would not take any decision to reopen the institutions before the Covid-19 pandemic situation normalised.

There is also no decision on the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination which was scheduled to be held on April 1 although the Education Minister Dipu Moni recently said that the admission process of the HSC students would start soon.

Director General of Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education Professor Syed Golam Faruk told The Business Standard that the virus situation is worsening day by day. There is no chance of a decision to reopen the educational institutions after Eid-ul-Azha.

"We are waiting for the corona situation to be normal. We cannot take any step which will be harmful to the nation," he said.

An official of the ministry on condition of anonymity said there is no chance that the educational institutions will be reopened in August.

"The ministry has a plan to resume the academic activities at institutions in September. But it will depend on the coronavirus situation," he added.

This year 16,90,523 students passed the exams from 28,796 institutions under 11 education boards across the country this year.

Last year, the higher secondary educational institutions started their classes from July 1.

About 13 lakh students were expected to sit for the HSC and equivalent examinations this year. The examinations were scheduled to be held at over 9,000 educational institutions across the country.

The examinations were scheduled to be held from April 1 but were cancelled later due to the pandemic.

Online classes to fill the vacuum

The government, however, started online classes through the Sangsad television and radio for the primary and secondary students from March 29.

Some public and private university administrations are also operating online classes.

But the students' participation and quality of the classes are still questionable.

Most of the students of primary and secondary level are not attending the classes as they have no TV and internet connection.

A recent study conducted by Brac said 56 percent students of the secondary level are not taking part in the online classes.

A large number of university students are also out of the online classes for lack of digital devices and the inability to buy internet packages.

There are 1.5 lakh educational institutions with five crore students from primary to higher education in the country.

The educationists think that the drop-out rate will increase if the educational institutions remain closed for an indefinite period.

Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam told The Business Standard that the government needs a long-term plan to save the students from being drop-outs.

"The educational institutions should be reopened soon after the situation is normalised," he said.

Dhaka Education Board Chairman Professor Ziaul Haque told The Business Standard that they could not take any decision on the reopening while the number of infected people is increasing.