Bangladesh plans to vaccinate college and university students

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The government plans to vaccinate college and university students before the educational institutions reopen, hinted cabinet secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam.

Speaking at a press briefing after the Monday cabinet meeting, Khandker Anwarul Islam said educational institutions would be reopened as soon as possible at a convenient time and if the university and college students could all be vaccinated.

He said renovation of the college and university halls was undertaken. So far renovation of 40 halls began.

According to the latest announcement of the government, the ongoing closure of the universities and the secondary and higher secondary educational institutions had been extended till 29 May. Online classes will continue and teachers, students as well as guardians will have to maintain the health and hygiene regulations.

Educational institutions in the country have been closed for 14 months due to coronavirus. This has posed as a serious problem for around 40 million (4 crore) students from the primary to the higher level of education. As no class exams are being held, the students are being promoted to the next class with a lot of deficiencies. Experts say that there is no assessment of how much they have actually learned.

According to a recent study, 19 per cent of primary level students and 25 per cent of secondary level students are at risk of not learning or having deficiency in learning. Educationists urge that long-term plans be taken up to make up for the losses in education. Many of them have recommended reopening the educational institutions in areas where there is no coronavirus or the rate of transmission is low.

The government had consulted with the national technical advisory committee on coronavirus and decided to open schools and colleges on 23 May and universities on 24 May. But due to the recent spike in coronavirus cases and concern over the Indian variant, the present restrictions have been extended and the reopening of educational institutions has also been pushed back once again.