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

Although school and college students across the country returned to their classes on Sunday after a long closure for Covid, the students of many primary, secondary schools and madrasas in Kurigram district are missing out the joy as they are bearing brunt of flooding. Some 200 schools and madrasas have been damaged by the recent floods in the district while seven schools that were washed away in Roumari, Nageshwari and Ulipur upazilas could not be reconstructed yet, officials said. They said the furniture of many schools were damaged due to prolonged closure and flooding while the roads connecting many schools are in very bad shape. Read: Flood in Kurigram getting worse - During a recent visit to Sardob Government Primary School along the Dharla River in Sadar upazila, the UNB correspondent found its ground fully under floodwater. Still, two students came to their school to submit their assignments wading through waist-deep water. Expressing his fear over the poor presence of students, Atul Chandra Roy, headmaster of Sardob Government Primary School, said, “Water is everywhere around the school. The roads connecting the school got damaged.” Matiar Rahman, a guardian of the school, said, “The road became unfit for movement as a number of big holes have developed on it, and it is just impossible for students to use this road.” Read: Flood, erosion leave 500 families homeless in Kurigram More worrying is that seven schools have recently gone into the gorge of the river due to its bank erosion. Bandula Kura Government Primary School in Ulipur upazila, Akbar Ali primary government school in Nageshwari upazila, Gatiasham Bagurapra Government Primary School in Razarhat upazila are among those. Meanwhile, Faluarchar Char Government Primary School and Ghughumari Government Primary School in Roumari upazila had been shifted last year due to erosion by the river. Now the furniture and valuables of the schools are getting damaged for lack of maintenance as those have been kept under the open sky. Read Fight the Flood: Safety measures to take before, during, after floods in Bangladesh Abdul Gafur, headmaster of Choto Kalua Government Primary School in Sadar upazila, said, “His school building stands threatened by erosion. Although the school reopened on Sunday, the presence of students was very thin.” Fazlur Rahman, headmaster of Sardob Ideal High School, said, “Many poor students, from class VII to X, went to different districts of the country in search of work due to the pandemic while many girl students have become victims of child marriage. So, the presence of students is now very low.” Shahidul Islam, Kurigram District Education Officer, said steps have been taken to ensure the continuation of smooth educational activities in the flood-hit schools. On Sunday, the students of schools and colleges in Bangladesh returned to their classrooms with much enthusiasm after an 18-month closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Read Loom industry badly damaged by flood in Sirajganj

Just a day before the reopening of educational intuitions after a prolonged Covid-related closure, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni on Saturday said the schools may be shut again if Coronavirus cases go up. Dipu Moni came up with the remark while talking to local journalists at Jamalpur Circuit House. Read: School gear up to reopen from Sunday  The education minister came here to join the triennial conference of district Awami League. “Educational institutions are going to reopen after a long 17-month of closure. All the health protocols will be maintained in the classrooms of all educational institutions. In the  case of a widespread rise in infections, we’ll take necessary measures and those will be closed again, if required,” she said.

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.

Classes in all primary, secondary and higher secondary level educational institutions will resume on March 30.

More than 60 percent respondents of an online survey opined that the schools of the country should be reopened in a short time.

About one-third of students returned to schools in the Chinese capital on Saturday in a staggered start to the new school year because of the coronavirus, reports AP.

A senior World Health Organization (WHO) official called for data-driven Covid-19 public health strategies instead of not making a mere politically-driven decision on school reopening.   “We can’t play Whack-a-mole. We need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time”, said Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, during WHO regular press briefing in Geneva on Monday.   The WHO official said the topic of school reopenings has become a “political football”, which is not fair on children.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has accused the Trump administration of messing with the health of children by their risky push to fully reopen schools amid global coronavirus pandemic.   “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' aggressive push to fully reopen schools this fall is "malfeasance and dereliction of duty," said the house speaker on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, reports AXIOS.   "We all want our children to go back to school. Teachers do, parents do and children do. But they must go back safely," she said.   "And when we hear what the administration is saying, we know they have no appreciation for the failure that has brought us to this point. Going back to school presents the biggest risk for the spread of the coronavirus. They ignore science and they ignore governance in order to make this happen," said Pelosi.   "If there are CDC (Centers for Disease Control) guidelines, they should be requirements. But most importantly, and I hope the Republicans will join us, we have to call upon the president to implement the Defense Protection Act so that we can have the PPE, the personal protective equipment, as well as the testing equipment and equipment to evaluate the tests."   Trump has demanded that schools reopen as part of his efforts to juice the economy by allowing parents to return to work, despite caution from health officials that little is known about how the virus impacts children.   Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told "Fox News Sunday" that public schools that don't reopen in the fall should not get federal funds, and that the money should be redirected to families who can use it to find another option for their children.   The Trump administration is engaged in a full-court press to reopen schools this fall, despite warnings from some public health officials that the coronavirus outbreak is out of control in many states and that it will be difficult for many schools to reopen safely.   The hard-hit US has registered 3,302,665 confirmed coronavirus cases.   Besides, so far 135,176 fatalities have been recorded in the country till Monday morning, according to data of John Hopkins University.