All the educational institutions in Bangladesh will remain closed until October 3 as there has been no marked improvement in the coronavirus situation. Mohammad Abul Khayer, public relations officer at the Ministry of Education, confirmed the information on Thursday.
However, the academic activities in all the Qawmi madrassahs across the country will remain out of the purview of the fresh order of closure.
On March 16, the government closed all the educational institutions of the country to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Later, on July 29, the government extended the closure until August 31.
Amid the pandemic, 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 online classes as the UGC on March 24 urged teachers to take online classes so that academic activities are not disrupted.
Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam on Monday said the time has not come yet to reopen the educational institutions of the country. “I don’t think the time has come to reopen schools and colleges,” he said responding to a question while briefing reporters about the outcome of the weekly cabinet meeting.
Besides, there will be no Primary Education Completion (PEC) and its equivalent Ebtedayee examination for 2020 and the students will be promoted to the next class through class assessment instead.
“We don’t want to put students at risk… a summary [report] of the current situation has been sent to the Prime Minister to cancel those (PEC-Ebtedayee exams) this year,” State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Md Zakir Hossain told UNB on Tuesday.
The PEC and Ebtedayee examinations were scheduled to begin on November 17 with around 30 lakh students preparing to appear in the exams.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh recorded 35 new coronavirus deaths in 24 hours until Wednesday morning, pushing the official death tally up to 3,035.
Besides, the country detected 3,009 new cases after testing 14,127 samples, taking the total number of officially confirmed cases to 2,32,194, reports UNB.
