Bangladesh secondary schools to resume in-person classes in full swing soon, says Dipu Moni

Education Minister Dipu Moni says secondary schools will resume full-fledged academic activities soon as primary school students returned to the brick and mortar classrooms following an ebb in coronavirus infections.

Bangladesh temporarily closed all educational institutes across Bangladesh on Jan 21, following a marked uptick in COVID-19 infections fuelled by the omicron variant.

Schools and colleges reopened on Feb 22 after the infection rate dropped.

Primary schools resumed in-person learning on Wednesday, with students attending classes in two shifts.

SSC examinees and 10th-graders are being taught four and three subjects respectively on weekdays.

Students of classes eight and nine are attending classes twice a week for three subjects, while sixth and seventh graders only have one class a week on one subject.

"Primary classes are running regularly from today and we'll try to bring academic activities at the secondary level back to normal soon," Dipu Moni said on Wednesday.

The government will try to ensure the students can recover from the loss of learning caused by the long closure of educational institutes due to the pandemic, the minister said. "Many students have suffered from family or social trauma."

“We'll focus on the areas that students need to improve upon. Maybe we won't be able to address all the issues in one academic year, but we hope to manage it within two years."

The government will also sit down with universities to explore ways to mitigate the setbacks faced by higher secondary students.

Asked about the delay in the distribution of books to higher secondary students, Dipu Moni said issues such as the supply of paper during the pandemic and the tender system caused has caused the hold-up. "We are trying to provide books to the higher secondary students soon."