Schools, colleges to reopen 30 March

All schools and colleges across the country will reopen on 30 March, after more than a year of shutdown over the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting at the secretariat on Saturday evening, said Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni. 

Initially the classes for the students of Class V will continue five days in a week and Class X and XII students for six days in a week. The pre-primary section will remain closed until the further decision, the minister said.

"We will resume the other classes gradually," she said.

"We will take the SSC examination after taking 60-day classes and HSC examination after 80-day classes," she said.

Dr Dipu Moni also said all the teachers will be vaccinated before the classes resume. Letters have been sent to all the authorities of all universities over the vaccination of teachers and students. Hope all the residential university students will get vaccinated before May 17.

The field level health officials and education officials will monitor the implementation of health guideline. The educational institutions will renovate their buildings and rooms before reopening the institutions, she added.

Meanwhile, about one lakh primary teachers have already been vaccinated.

In the face of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country, the government shut all educational institutions on 17 March last year to contain mass infection.

In the meantime, teachers have started going to schools regularly while the school authorities have initiated clean-up programmes to remove dust accumulated during the long closure.

Wishing anonymity, a ministry official told TBS that schools had been asked to strictly maintain health guidelines issued by the World Health Organisation.

"We also asked them to take steps so that students could protect themselves from getting infected," he said. 

Only one student, the official said, would be allowed to sit on a bench and a maximum of 15 would be allowed to join a class.

On 16 March last year, the education ministry issued a press release informing the government's decision to close all educational institutions and coaching centres from 18 to 31 March, considering students' safety amid the global pandemic. Later, the closure was extended several times.

Earlier, the government also decided not to hold last year's Primary School Certificate (PSC), Junior School Certificate (JSC), Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and their equivalent exams due to the pandemic.

The PSC and JSC examinees will get automatic promotion to the next class, while HSC students will be assessed based on their JSC and Secondary School Certificate (SSC) results. All students from primary to secondary level will also be promoted automatically.

There are about 4.5 crore students from pre-primary to higher education level at around two lakh educational institutions across the country.