Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni came up with the announcement after an inter-ministerial meeting at the Secretariat on Saturday night.

"Schools and colleges will reopen, but classes will not be held every day for all grades and preschools will remain shut," the minister said.

"Students of 5th, 10th, and 12th grades will have classes in person – six days a week. Learners of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades will have classes one day a week initially, and 9th and 11th grade students will have classes two days a week," she added.

"The number of classes per week will be increased gradually and we will return to normal in phases. All teachers, officials and employees would be vaccinated before the reopening."

"Letters have been sent to the authorities of all universities over the vaccination of teachers and students. Hopefully all the residential university students will get vaccinated before May 17."

Earlier on Monday, the Education Minister said classes in all the public and private universities will resume on May 24.

Also read: All universities to reopen on May 24, halls May 17: Minister

The residential halls of the universities will be reopened on May 17, said the minister while addressing a virtual press briefing.

However, the online classes will continue but no examination will be held before the reopening of the universities, the minister added.

Closure of educational institutions

The government shut all the educational institutions on March 17 last year after the country confirmed its first Covid-19 cases on March 8. The closure was extended several times, most recently until February 28 this year, to protect the students from the virus infections.

Also read: Covid-19: Educational institution closure extended until Feb 28

Covid-19 in Bangladesh

Bangladesh recorded 407 more Covid-19 infections until early Saturday, meaning 545,831 people have now tested positive for the virus in the country since the start of the pandemic.

The daily infection rate rose to 3.30%, which was 3.13% on Friday.

Also read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: Daily infection rate rises again, fatalities fall

Also, the country saw five new Covid-19 deaths, taking the national tally to 8,400, and the fatality rate stood at 1.54%, said the Directorate General of Health Services.

The overall infection rate stood at 13.54%. However, 496,107 patients – 90.89% – have recovered so far.

Some 4,030,616 tests, including 12,348 new ones, have been carried out since the first cases were reported on March 8.

Covid-19 vaccination drive in Bangladesh

Bangladesh launched a countrywide coronavirus vaccination drive on February 7.

By Saturday, 2,984,773 people received the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The second dose has to be taken between 8 and 12 weeks of the first one.

Also read: Take Covid-19 vaccine, follow health guidelines: PM Hasina

The government is providing the vaccine for free. It signed an agreement with India's Serum Institute for 30 million doses of the vaccine. The institute will provide five million doses every month between January and June.

The people, who are 40 or above, can register for the vaccine at www.surokkha.gov.bd. The on-spot registration system has been scrapped.