Govt not planning online classes for now: State minister

Amid the global fuel crisis arising from the war in the Middle East, the government is not planning to run online classes in educational institutions for the time being. However, a final decision on this matter has not yet been made.

Primary and Mass Education State Minister Bobby Hajjaj told Prothom Alo on Monday afternoon that, for now, the cabinet is leaning toward not conducting classes online, though the matter has not yet been finalised.

Earlier, while inspecting a school in the capital, the minister had also told journalists similar things.

A preliminary plan by the Ministry of Education had proposed six days of classes per week. Under this, it was considered to hold three days online and three days in-person on an alternative basis—meaning if one day is online, the next day would be in-person, and so on.

In the Cabinet meeting held last Thursday, it was decided that as part of the electricity-saving action plan, the Ministry of Education would discuss with stakeholders regarding the functioning of educational institutions and present a proposal in the next meeting. This decision was announced in a government hand-out on the following day.

Replying to queries from journalists at the Secretariat on Sunday, Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon said that the proposal would likely go to the Cabinet after discussion with stakeholders. After the Cabinet meeting, the Cabinet Division will hold a press conference, and in the meantime, they have nothing to say.

Typically, the Cabinet’s weekly meeting is held on Thursdays. Accordingly, the next meeting could be on 9 April.

After nearly 40 days of holidays for occasions such as the holy Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr, educational institutions reopened on 29 March. Meanwhile, due to the war in the Middle East, many countries, including Bangladesh, have faced a fuel crisis. In this situation, the idea of partially running online classes in educational institutions to reduce fuel pressure has come up.

However, teachers of government primary schools believe that effectively conducting online classes will be quite difficult. A head teacher of a government primary school in Dhaka told Prothom Alo last Saturday that the school has students from working-class and poor families. It would be impossible to bring all of them under online classes. Earlier, during the COVID-19 infection period, online classes had been announced, but in reality, most students could not participate online.

A high-level source in the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education said that they also think it will be difficult to conduct online classes with all students in government primary schools. Therefore, they are also considering how to keep options open to address the issue. However, the final decision will come from the Cabinet.