Educational institutions must reopen immediately
A meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday asked the ministry to take initiative in providing vaccines manufactured under government management within the next six to nine months. Whether this will actually come into effect or not depends on the commitment and capacity of those concerned.
The government has short-term and long-term plans for vaccine manufacture. The short term production plans encompass importing bulk and supplying the finished product here. A tripartite agreement has recently been signed with China for this purpose
The long-term plan is to bring technology from abroad to manufacture vaccines in the country. For instance, the Serum Institute of India has signed an agreement with Oxford-AstraZeneca. The parliamentary committee has also asked for a report to be submitted in this regard within a month.
If the government had taken initiative to produce vaccines at the very beginning of the corona outbreak, the people would have received locally produced vaccines long ago. Despite the delay, we appreciate the decision of the parliamentary committee.
According to a Prothom Alo report on Friday, only 4 per cent of the population received both the doses of vaccine whereas the government has a plan to bring 80 per cent of the people under the vaccination programme. Bangladesh ranks ninth among 10 countries in South and Southeast Asia in terms of vaccinations. Bangladesh is only above Myanmar on the list.
When the government has taken the initiative to reopen educational institutions after these remaining closed for a year and a half, the state of the overall vaccination drive countrywide is disappointing.
There may not be direct relationship between vaccination and education, but the vaccine is considered to be the only protection against corona. The government has said that all students above the age of 16 must get their jabs in order to return to their educational institutions. Teachers, staff and employees need to be vaccinated along with the students too.
The Ministry of Education has extended the holidays in all educational institutions till 11 September. The students and parents expected that the educational institution would be reopened as soon as possible without extending the holidays further. But education minister Dipu Moni said at an event on Friday that the universities would open mid-October.
Earlier, she had said that the educational institution would be reopened soon after corona receded. How could ‘soon’ be one and a half months? Some university teachers have started taking symbolic classes in the open air. They possibly intend to convey the message that it is not right to keep the university closed for even a single day more.
The education minister has set a deadline of mid-October for reopening the universities, but no dates have been announced for colleges and schools. Health minister Zahid Maleque said 70 million vaccines would come from China soon. In that case, we have to prepare to open all the educational institutions right away. The education ministry should announce plan in this regard as to which educational institutions will be opened and when.
Educational institutions have been closed for more than a year and a half. It will be very unfortunate if the educational institutions remain closed due to the uncertainty of getting vaccines even after the infection has decreased. Students must be vaccinated on a priority basis. Neither education nor students can be kept in uncertainty any longer.