Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni on Thursday said all schools and colleges in the country would reopen after Eid-ul-Fitr on May 23 in light of the recent surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths.
The minister revealed the decision after discussing the matter with all stakeholders.
In the meantime, online education activities would continue and teachers, students and parents must adhere to the hygiene rules, Dipu Moni said.
She stressed that the health of students, teachers and parents is their highest priority.
The Covid-19 situation has drastically worsened in the past few days, leading students, teachers and parents to panic about the scheduled reopening.
On March 15, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said the government is considering further extensions to the closure of educational institutes.
On March 16 last year, the government closed all educational institutions in an effort to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
The closures were extended in several phases, with the latest extension on February 27 when it was decided that the schools and colleges would reopen on March 30.
The pandemic also resulted in the cancellation of last year's Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations.
The government also scrapped Primary Education Completion (PEC) exams for fifth graders, the Junior School Certificate (JSC) and Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) exams for eighth graders, and the annual exams for students of grades 6-10.
Public and private universities are set to resume on May 24 and residential halls are supposed to reopen on May 17. Online classes will continue, but no examinations will be held before the reopening of the universities.
The month of March is seeing an upward trend of rising cases day by day.
On Thursday, Bangladesh logged a total of 3,587 new Covid-19 cases and 34 deaths in the 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 584,395 and fatalities to 8,797.
