Regular classes not for all now
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should be maintained properly.
Dipu Moni urged all guardians to send their children to schools, but at the same time make sure that their children do not attend if they are sick.
Her announcement comes at a time when life in the country has gradually been returning to normal following a Covid-19 surge earlier in the year, and as calls for reopening educational institutions from guardians and educationists have been getting louder.
The UN Children’s Fund had also called upon the government to end the school closures and resume in-person learning as soon as possible for children’s well-being and future prospects.
In the face of mounting pressure, the government had made several attempts to reopen schools, but were thwarted due to fresh waves of infections.
Dipu Moni said universities, which are scheduled to reopen in mid-October, can bring forward the resumption of academic activities if they want and that the final decision in this regard would rest with respective universities.
She said there would be another meeting in this regard within a week.
The government on August 26 decided that all students of public and private universities would be vaccinated by the end of September and in-person classes at the universities would begin on October 15.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque on September 2 said in-person academic activities of first-, second-, and fifth-year students of medical colleges would start from September 13.
Educational institutions were closed across the country on March 17 last year to curb the spread of Covid-19. The closure led to cancellation of classes and examinations, throwing the academic lives of more than four crore students of around 1.5 lakh educational institutions in disarray.
To recoup the academic loss, the government launched TV educational programmes on the state-run Sangsad channel for secondary and primary students.
Later, it asked all schools, colleges, and universities to introduce online classes. Assignments were also handed out to secondary-level students.
While many schools in cities and urban areas quickly adapted to online education, it was a much tougher ask for students in rural areas as they lacked the necessary devices and access to the internet.
Dipu Moni yesterday said the government will monitor the Covid-19 situation closely after reopening and if it finds that reopening has caused a spike in Covid infections in any area, they would take the decision to close down the school or schools in that locality.
The minister said teachers should be vigilant about whether any student, especially those of classes 1-4, are facing difficulties wearing masks. “All kinds of physical activities and games would take place under the supervision of teachers and there will be no assembly at schools until the situation improves,” she said
Classes of each grade will take place in two or three rooms.
As in-person classes are resuming after so long, authorities will deduct daily class hours to three or four hours from the usual eight hours, she added.
The education minister said SSC and its equivalent examinations will take place in the second week of November and the HSC and its equivalent tests in the first week of December. She said the government would vaccinate all students aged 12 and above in phases, based on availability of vaccines, and the health ministry is taking necessary measures in this regard.
Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (LGRD) Minister Md Tajul Islam, Primary and Mass Education State Minister Zakir Hossen, Youth and Sports State Minister Zahid Ahsan Russel, Deputy Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam and the top brass of several ministries attended the meeting at the Secretariat.
Meanwhile, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) instructed all secondary schools and colleges to complete preparations for resuming classes by September 9.
It also sent revised guidelines yesterday on reopening educational institutions maintaining health guidelines and public health safety measures to all schools and colleges.
The guideline recommended the maintenance of three feet of physical distance between everyone at institutions and classrooms. It also stressed upon discouraging large numbers attending at a time.
If a classroom can accommodate 10 benches of less than five feet in length, then only six students could be accommodated in that classroom, with just one student per bench or desk, the guidelines mentioned.
In the above example, the second and fourth benches have to be removed to ensure the requisite physical distance. If it is not possible to remove the benches then those have to be cross-marked so that students do not sit there.
On the other hand, if the length of a bench is five feet or more, two students can sit on it.
In the last week of August, DSHE and Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) asked secondary and primary schools to ensure that their campuses are clean and ready for reopening.
Last week, DPE forwarded guidelines and public health safety measures -- which had been finalised in September 2020 -- for reopening schools.
The guideline recommended that a maximum of two students can sit on each bench and that everyone in those institutions -- students, teachers and other staffers -- will have to wear masks.
All schools will also have to ensure arrangements for hand washing and measuring body temperature.
All schools will be cleaned and classrooms and office rooms will be disinfected regularly. Cleaning and disinfection will take place after every shift and following every day of classes.
No indoor assembly will be allowed, according to the plan.