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Primary school in-person classes resume 1 March

Primary school in-person classes will resume on 1 March on a limited scale and in keeping with health guidelines. State minister for primary and mass education informed Prothom Alo of the matter on Friday.

Earlier, on Wednesday, the decision was taken to reopen secondary, higher secondary and higher education institutions. It was said at the time that the primary schools would be reopened in another two weeks or so.

Speaking at a press briefing at the secretariat on Thursday, education minister Dipu Moni said, even if educational institutions are opened up now, classes will be held on a limited scale as before. And only children who have had both doses of the Covid vaccine will be able to enter the classroom. The others will have to follow classes online or on television until they have had the second dose.

Coronavirus had come under control for around three and a half months, but then the number of cases began to rise again towards the end of December.

With the emergence of the Omicron variant, the number of new cases detected and the rate of detection began to rise rapidly. On 6 January the number of patients exceeded 1000. Just two weeks from then, on 20 January, the number of daily detected cases exceeded 10,000.

As the virus spread, the number of daily detections shot over 15,000. It remained over 10,000 till 3 February.

Due to the outbreak of coronavirus, the government declared all educational institutions closed on 17 March 2020. Then when the situation improved to an extent, educational institutions reopened after a long 18 months in September last year.

Classes were conducted on a limited scale and not all classes were held daily. Then when coronavirus cases began in increase once again, the government on 21 January announced all educational institutions closed once more.

This closure was supposed to be up till 6 February, but was later extended till 21 February.