educational institutions
HSC exams begin in Bangladesh
After a delay of nearly seven months due to the pandemic, the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent exams for the academic session 2020-21 began on Thursday, following all Covid-safety protocols.
Some 13,99,690 students are eligible to take the high-stakes exams this year. The number was 13,65,789 last year -- a 2.48% rise.
While 11,38,017 candidates are supposed to appear for the HSC exams under nine general education boards, 1,13,114 are eligible to take the Alim exams under the Madrasa Education Board and 1,48,503 the vocational exams under the Bangladesh Technical Education Board this year.
Read: Maintain health protocols to keep HSC exams undisturbed: Dipu Moni
Besides, 406 students are slated to appear for the HSC exams from abroad. Some 2,621 centres have been designated as HSC exam hubs across the country.
This year, the SSC and the HSC exams could not be held as per schedule due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Subsequently, the government decided to hold the exams with shortened syllabi.
The SSC and equivalent exams that began on November 14 concluded on November 23 while the HSC and equivalent exams will conclude on December 30.
Buzz back as in-person classes resume at Dhaka University
Dhaka University authorities resumed physical classes on Sunday, after nearly 18 months of Covid-forced closure.
Offline classes resumed at different departments and institutes from 8am today.
Prof Abu Md Delwar Hossain, Dean of the Arts Faculty, said classes and exams began at 8am and those will continue until 5pm today.
Read:Vaccination campaign in Dhaka University starts from Monday to jab its students, teachers and staff
Students are allowed to attend classes provided they show the proof of receiving at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine.
Antika Tabassum, a third-year student of Islamic Studies department, said, "We are excited for being back to classrooms and seeing each other after a long time."
School reopening in Bangladesh: Children at greater risk in Delta-hit areas
As millions of children returned to classrooms amid the growing concern of the possible third wave of Covid-19, experts fear that any laxity in maintaining health protocols and guardian’s lack of awareness can put the kids at risk of infections.
They said children in the areas where the virus infection rate is still over 15 percent are highly vulnerable to the deadly virus.
The experts ring the alarm bell as the extremely transmissible Delta variant has been taking its toll on children in different countries, including the USA, where children went back to schools in person.
Read: School Closure: 50,000 students may have dropped out in Kurigram
They said though the performances of most of the school authorities still look good when it comes to maintaining health safety rules, the guardians seem unaware of the looming danger of pandemic since they are seen crowding outside of different schools, even many of them without masks, risking their own health and that of their children.
The analysts said the authorities have to ensure that health guidelines are consistently followed without any laxity.
Besides, they said, the school authorities should motivate the guardians to maintain social distancing and health safety rules when they gather outside of the gates.
Read Fresh Covid surge may lead to school closure again: Dipu Moni
No room to defy Covid norms at schools, colleges: Dipu Moni
Action will be taken against those who will defy health protocols in their educational institutions, said Education Minister Dipu Moni.
“If any violation of Covid norms is seen at educational institutions, action will be taken against those responsible for that, no matter whether he/she is a teacher or an official from the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE),” she said.
The education minister came up with the warning while talking to reporters after visiting Azimpur Government Girls’ School and College in the city on Sunday.
Read: Students in Bangladesh burst into joy as schools, colleges reopen
“The Covid infection rate has dropped to 7 percent, and when we had a meeting on August 26, we witnessed a downtrend. After considering it, we took the decision to reopen the educational institutions. The students have been suffering a lot socially and mentally due to the prolonged closure of the educational institutions,” she said.
Meeting on reopening educational institutions today
An inter-ministerial meeting will be held on Sunday to take a decision on reopening educational institutions.
“ The ministry will hold a meeting to come to a decision,” MA Khair, public relations officer of the Education Ministry, told UNB.
Earlier, on Aug 26, the government extended the closure of secondary and higher secondary-level educational institutions until September 11.
The government shut the educational institutions on March 17, 2020 after the country reported its first Covid-19 cases on March 8 and later the closure was extended several times.
On Friday, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moin said primary, secondary and higher secondary educational institutions in the country will reopen on September 12.
“The decision was taken in a joint meeting of the Education Ministry, Ministry of Primary and Mass education and the National Technical Advisory Committee held on Thursday night,” she said at a function in Chandpur sadar upazila.
Read: Covid positivity rate shrinks to 10%, cases and deaths continue declining
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to reopen all the schools, colleges, including madrasas, on September 12 as per the decision,” Dipu Moni said.
Regarding the opening of universities, the minister said the decision is still pending as the Vice Chancellors of public universities want to see all the students are vaccinated-- at least the first dose of Covid-19 vaccines.
“We’ll hold another meeting with them. If they want, they can reopen with other educational institutions or fix another date following the decision of the syndicate committees of their universities,” said Dipu Moni.
Read: Decision on vaccinating school students soon: DGHS DG
Even after reopening, she said, the educational institutions will have to send mandatory regular reports on abiding by health guidelines and Covid-19 situation.
Steps underway to reopen educational institutions: Hasina
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said the government is taking measures to reopen educational institutions across the country soon.
“We’ve been able to control the coronavirus to a large extent. There’s no more problem regarding vaccines…I’ve already directed (the authorities concerned) to reopen schools and colleges soon,” she said.
The Prime Minister said this when she joined a discussion over a condolence motion placed in Parliament to condole the death of Awami League’s MP Hasibur Rahman Swapan (Sirajganj-6).
Hasina said teachers have already been vaccinated and now steps are underway to vaccinate other staff of the educational institutions.
“Since there’re some WHO guidelines for school students, we’re taking measures to vaccinate the students following the guidelines,” she said.
Read: All medical colleges in Bangladesh to reopen in phases from Sept 13
So, Hasina said, the government is collecting some Pfizer vaccines and trying to procure Moderna vaccines, too. “Other vaccines are also coming. We’ve already paid for six core vaccine jabs,” the Prime Minister told the House.
The government is also taking steps to vaccinate the family members of health workers along with their domestic-helps and drivers, and even the family members of the domestic -helps and drivers so that the virus cannot be transmitted, she said.
The Prime Minister asked all people to follow the health protocols even after getting vaccinated.
She said it is seen that many people are affected by coronavirus even after being vaccinated though their health conditions do not deteriorate severely. “So, everybody should remain careful.”
She said those who have comorbidities, including diabetes, cardiovascular, cancer and kidney diseases, should be more careful and seriously follow the health protocols as they are at great risk.
Dengue
The Prime Minister urged all to keep their houses and surroundings clean to prevent the breeding of Aedes mosquitoes that spread the dengue virus.
“People are now suffering from dengue (fever) also. So, I would like to ask everyone to keep their own houses, gardens and surroundings clean so that the water doesn’t remain stagnant anywhere and (Aedes) mosquitoes can’t breed,” she said.
Experts seek roadmap for reopening educational institutions
As the Covid infection rate continues to fall, health experts advised the government to immediately take adequate preparations along with a roadmap to reopen the educational institutions in Bangladesh gradually.
They think the government should first reopen the universities and then colleges, high schools and primary ones within the next month by bringing teachers and eligible students under the vaccine coverage on a priority basis.
Read Closure of schools, colleges extended again until Sep 11
They also called for preparing national Covid prevention and control guidelines based on health sciences to ensure academic activities in the educational institutions with safety even if the virus transmission goes up further.
The government shut the educational institutions on March 17, 2020 after the country had reported its first Covid-19 cases on March 8. Then the closure was extended several times. The latest extension was supposed to continue till August 31.
Also read: General holidays extended till May 30
But the government on Thursday extended the closure of secondary and higher secondary-level educational institutions until September 11.
On Tuesday, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni said educational institutions in the country will be reopened soon if the coronavirus infection rate continues to decline.
Roadmap
Talking to UNB, public health expert MH Chowdhury (Lenin), chairman of the medicine department at the Health and Hope Hospital, said the government needs to prepare a roadmap quickly before reopening the educational institutions based on health sciences.
Read Protest 'classes' start Thursday at JU
Closure of schools, colleges extended again until Sep 11
The government on Thursday again extended the closure of secondary and higher secondary-level educational institutions until September 11 considering the Covid-19 situation in the country.
Talking to UNB, MA Khair, public relations officer of the Education Ministry, revealed the information about the government decision.
“A joint meeting of the Education Ministry, Ministry of Primary and Mass education and the National Technical Advisory Committee was held on Thursday over the issue, “ he said.
The government shut the educational institutions on March 17, 2020 after the country reported its first Covid-19 cases on March 8. Then the closure was extended several times, most recently until August 31.
Read:Schools, colleges asked to prepare for reopening, guidelines issued
Covid surge in Bangladesh: Primary schools to remain shut until Aug 31
Amid the recent spike in Coronavirus, the government has extended the closure of primary schools and kindergartens across Bangladesh until August 31 to protect students from virus infections.
The decision in this regard was taken on Friday, said a handout came from the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education.
The handout said students have to abide by health guidelines and regulations issued from time to time by the Prime Minister's Office, Cabinet Division, Ministry of Public Administration and Health Services Department.
Also read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: Schools, colleges to remain closed until Aug 31
The government has also extended the closure of secondary and higher secondary-level educational institutions until August 31.
Covid situation in Bangladesh
As the Delta variant of Covid-19 engulfed the country, Bangladesh recorded 239 more deaths caused by the virus in 24 hours till Thursday morning.
Besides, 15,271 new people came out Covid positive during the period after the test of 52,282 samples, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The fresh cases took the country’s Covid death tally to 20,255 today while the caseload to 1,226,253.
The country has been seeing nearly 200 deaths a day for the past two weeks, shattering the records of daily cases and deaths almost every other day.
Also read: Reopening of schools cannot wait: UNICEF, UNESCO
Meanwhile, the daily test-positivity rate declined slightly to 29.21% from Wednesday's 30.12% while the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a 5% or below rate.
However, the case fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.65 % during the period, said the DGHS.
Covid-19 in Bangladesh: Schools, colleges to remain closed until Aug 31
The government has again extended the closure of secondary and higher secondary-level educational institutions until August 31 due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in the country.
The decision was taken considering the safety of students, teachers and staffers in consultation with the National Advisory Committee on Covid-19, said an official release signed by MA Khair, public relations officer of the Education Ministry on Thursday.
Earlier, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni said the government had decided to reopen educational institutions, particularly the primary, secondary and higher secondary ones, in Bangladesh on June 13 if the Covid-19 situation does not deteriorate.
Later, the government announced the extension of closure of schools and colleges till July 31, and the Education Ministry issued a notice in this regard.
The government shut educational institutions on March 17 last year after the country reported its first Covid-19 cases on March 8.
Read: Covid-19: Bangladesh lowers vaccination age to 25
The closure was extended several times after that.
On February 22, the education minister announced that university classes would resume on May 24. Residential halls were also scheduled to be reopened on May 17. But that did not happen due to the worsening pandemic.
Covid situation in Bangladesh
As the Delta variant of Covid-19 engulfed the country, Bangladesh recorded 239 more deaths caused by the virus in 24 hours till Thursday morning.
Besides, 15,271 new people came out Covid positive during the period after the test of 52,282 samples, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The fresh cases took the country’s Covid death tally to 20,255 today while the caseload to 1,226,253.
Read: Covid in Bangladesh: Daily toll remains above 200; 15,271 more infected
The country has been seeing nearly 200 deaths a day for the past two weeks, shattering the records of daily cases and deaths almost every other day.
Meanwhile, the daily test-positivity rate declined slightly to 29.21% from Wednesday's 30.12% while the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a 5% or below rate.
However, the case fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.65 % during the period, said the DGHS.