Assignments to continue after school reopening

The government is planning to continue assignment work for secondary and higher students even after the reopening of educational institutions as it might have to go for closures again if Covid-19 infections rise.

Students of the fourth to seventh grades will have to attend in-person classes six days a week, while those of the remaining classes will take lessons physically one day a week after studies at educational institutions resume, according to education ministry sources. 

Prof Syed Golam Faruk, director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, told The Business Standard that the authorities will reopen schools, colleges and madrasas from 12 September if the Covid-19 infection rate falls. 

"We will continue assignment work besides in-person classes as we do not know when the infection rate will increase again. We may be compelled to close the institutions again," he said. 

"We are now working on finalising protocols for smooth and risk-free operations of the institutions, which will be made public within seven days," he also said. 

The education ministry may not extend school closures after 11 September. The ministry will hold an inter-ministerial meeting on Sunday to arrive at a final decision on the resumption of classes across the country. 

The reopening process, recovering learning losses and checking dropouts will be the main agenda at the upcoming inter-ministerial meeting. The ministry asked the authorities concerned to prepare a plan and submit it to the meeting. It will take the final decision at the meeting, according to ministry sources.

In the meantime, face-to-face classes at all the medical colleges will resume on 13 September. Initially, the classes for the first, second and fifth year (intern) students will be held, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Thursday.

 "Medical students need to go to patients for their practical education at one stage. Otherwise, their education will remain incomplete. So, there is no other option but to resume face-to-face classes," the minister said after a meeting at the ministry in the afternoon.

 There are around 1.5 lakh students in different medical and dental colleges and technical institutions across the country. All teachers and students have already been vaccinated. 

The National Technical Advisory Committee has opined in favour of a reopening of educational institutions if the Covid-19 infection rate drops below 10%. Bangladesh has seen a rapid drop in the Covid-19 infection rate recently. 

The overall infection rate in the country is currently at 12%. Experts hope that the infection rate will drop below 10% in the coming days.

But the education ministry plans to reopen schools once the infection rate drops below 7-8%. 

There are 1.5 lakh educational institutions with 5 crore students from primary to higher education in the country. Students have mostly remained away from academic studies since 17 March when educational institutions were closed down owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Md Mahbub Hossain, secretary (secondary and higher education division) at the education ministry, said the reopening of educational institutions is very essential as students have been out of classrooms for a long time. 

The ministry will try to recover learning losses and check dropouts. The final decision will come at Sunday's meeting, he said. 

Bangladesh is among a few countries that have chosen to keep schools shut since the outbreak. Schools are open in about 175 countries, including many states in the United States and in Europe although they have been battling against a fresh wave of the virus.

Meanwhile, the education ministry and the primary and mass education ministry have claimed that they have everything in place for academic activities to resume any day. 

The ministries also asked officials and teachers to be ready with health measures to conduct academic activities through following health guidelines strictly. 

Alamgir Mohammed Monsurul Alam, director general at the directorate of primary education, told TBS that 66,000 government primary schools and other 70,000 non-government primary schools are ready to receive students and resume face-to-face classes. 

"I believe that students will not be affected by the virus because we are highly concerned about health guidelines," he said. 

Sources at the education ministry said students of classes IV and V, classes X and XII will be the first to return to schools. Only one student will sit on a bench and a maximum of 15 students will be able to be in a classroom together. 

Ministry firm to hold SSC, HSC exams but all depends on virus situation 

The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams will be held by the second week of November and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations by the first week of December according to the shortened syllabus already laid out by the authorities.

In that case, students will be tested in three subjects, excluding those that they have studied to pass the previous board exams. That means they will choose from among subjects specific to the three groups – science, arts and commerce – for the written exams.

Registration for the exams has already begun and will continue till 4 September. The duration of exams will be halved to 1.5 hours and marks to 50.

If the Covid situation deteriorates again, results will be published through an evaluation of assignments given in the three subjects chosen by the students, combined with the results of previous board exams.

A total of 24 assignments will be given to SSC candidates in 12 weeks from this month. And HSC candidates will have to submit 30 assignments.

"We have all the arrangements to hold the SSC and HSC exams. We hope that the situation will improve by this time. In case we fail to hold the exams, we will take help from assignments and students' previous results on publishing SSC and HSC results-2021," Prof Syed Golam Faruk said. 

JSC, JDC exams will also be held 

The education ministry is determined to hold the Junior School Certificate (JSC) and Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) examinations this year. The ministry is also planning to hold the exams in November. But if the Covid-19 situation does not improve the education ministry will consider promoting JSC and JDS students automatically to the next classes. 

Requesting anonymity, an official said the ministry will try to conduct short tests in classrooms. If that is not possible, all JSC and JDC students will get auto promotion as was the case last year.

Prof Sayedur Rahman, chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at the BSMMU, told TBS that according to government data, a maximum number of teachers and officials have been vaccinated, which is why the government can reopen educational institutions now.

"Wearing masks must be mandatory and schools must be clean and ensure enough ventilation. The students will attend classes only. No conversations or socialising will be allowed and no gatherings of guardians on school premises will be permitted," he said.