Schools, colleges to stay closed till May 30

All educational institutions will remain closed until May 30 on the occasions of Ramadan, Jumatul Wida, Shab-e-Qadr, and Eid-ul-Fitr, said Mahbub Hossain, secondary and higher education division secretary.

"We will issue an order to this end soon," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

All educational institutions have been closed since March 17, and the government has now extended the closure until May 16 to stem the further spread of Covid-19.

On April 27, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said all educational institutions may stay closed until September if the situation caused by the coronavirus outbreak does not improve.

Directorate of Primary Education sources said according to their academic calendar, all primary schools will remain closed until June 6 for Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr and summer vacations.

Educational activities of about four crore students are being hampered due to coronavirus crisis. Publishing of SSC exam results and holding of HSC exams have been deferred for an indefinite period. First-term exams of primary schools also been cancelled for the crisis.

The government started TV education through Sangsad TV for secondary students on March 29, for primary students on April 7, and for technical and madrassa students on April 19, so that students can make up for some of the losses due to closure of schools.

Many guardians said it was only partially fulfilling the objective, as about a half of the country's people -- many of them underprivileged -- do not have access to TV sets.

The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey-2019 of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics shows that 50 percent households of the country do not have television sets.