The Primary and Mass Education Ministry will send a proposal to the Prime Minister over cancellation of the Primary Education Completion (PEC) examination due to the coronavirus pandemic, said

State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Md Zakir Hossain.

“We had a meeting over the issue…we discussed the PEC examination and the overall planning about primary education. A summary will be sent to the Prime Minister for approval,” he told UNB.

Mahbub Hossain, Secretary to the Secondary and Higher Education Department, said no decision has been taken yet to send any proposal over cancellation of the Junior School Certificate (JSC) and Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) examinations.

“No decision has been taken yet over cancellation of the exams and no proposal has been sent to the Prime Minister in this regard,” he told UNB.

“A meeting is scheduled to be held this week where issues regarding the examinations and reopening of schools will be discussed,” he said.

On March 16, the government closed all the educational institutions to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Later on July 29, the government has again extended the closure of all the educational institutions of the country until August 31 considering the coronavirus situation.

The government is running a distance-learning programme through Sangsad Television. Apart from this, classes are being taken on Facebook and YouTube for primary and secondary-level students.

Many private universities have already started offering online classes as the University Grant Commission (UGC) on March 24 urged teachers to take online classes so that academic activities are not interrupted.

Bangladesh’s coronavirus death tally reached 3,471 on Tuesday after the health authorities announced 33 more deaths in the last 24 hours.

Besides, 2,996 new cases were identified after testing 14,820 samples, pushing up the number of cases to 2,63,503.

Also read: Coronavirus death toll nears 3,500 in Bangladesh

Professor M Lutfor Rahman was appointed as the chairman of public administration department of Islamic University (IU) in Kushtia on Tuesday.

Acting Registrar SM Abdul Latif told UNB that Vice-Chancellor Professor M Harun-Ur-Rashid Askari appointed Lutfor to the post for the next three years.

He was appointed to the post as the tenure of previous chairman, Professor M Zulfiquar Hossain, came to an end, the registrar added.

Read Also: International webinar on 'online examinations' held at IU

Bangladesh Betar will start broadcasting lessons ‘Ghore bose shikhi’ for primary school students from August 12 so that students could continue academic activities amid the coronavirus pandemic.

State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Ministry Md Zakir Hossain will inaugurate broadcasting of lessons by Bangladesh Betar and 16 community radios.

The programme will be aired at 4:05 pm from Sunday to Thursday every week, said a press release.

All the educational institutes of the country remained shut since March 17 due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni on Sunday said a pool of Vice-chancellors (VC) will be formed to fill vacancies for the post in different universities of the country. 

She called upon the public universities to send the list of names and resumes of the top 10 percent senior professors to the Ministry of Education by August 31. 

The Minister made the call while addressing a virtual meeting about the appointment of VC, Pro-VC and Treasurer in public and private universities in the country. 

She urged universities to send the names for appointment to the ministry and added that the ministry will take legal action if the lists are not sent within the said period.

Deputy Minister of Education Mahibul Hasan Chowdhury MP, Secretary of Secondary and Higher Education Department Md. Mahbub Hossain and other senior officials of the ministry were present in the meeting. 

At present, there are vacancies for the post of VCs in three public universities and Pro-VCs in 25 public universities. 

On the other hand, there are vacancies for VCs of 19 private universities and Pro-VCs of 83 private universities.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has directed public universities to prepare lists of indigent students who will need assistance to buy smartphones for attending online classes during the coronavirus crisis.

UGC also asked the universities to utilise funds allocated for research and properly follow employment rules.

In a media statement on Sunday, UGC said that it had sent three separate letters to the vice-chancellors of 45 public universities in this regard.

UGC noted that according to the rules and regulations, no teacher, officer or employee working in the university can be directly or indirectly involved in any other governmental or non-governmental organisation or personally run any business or any for-profit organisation without the permission of the respective authority.

It said it has learned that some of the teachers, officers and employees of some public universities are working in various government and non-government organisations without the prior approval of the authorities, while some of them are also running private businesses without the prior approval of the authorities.

Such actions are a clear violation of the employment rules, the statement said.

The VCs have been requested to ensure proper implementation, follow-up and observance of the rules and regulations of the respective universities.

Meanwhile, UGC also requested proper utilisation of the fund public universities get for research work.

The concerned authorities of the University invite the research projects. They allocate funds to the projects that get the final nod.

But UGC said that although there is a rule to spend research fund on research works, some universities are violating this rule, which has been observed by the commission.

It urged the VCs to ensure that the funds are properly spent only on the activities of the selected research projects.

Also read: UGC approves Tk 8,485.12 crore budget for 46 public universities