After a year of immense suffering due to the outbreak of coronavirus, the provost committee of Dhaka University (DU) has finally recommended to open up the residential halls for its final year and semester examinees at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

The preliminary move for opening dormitories came immediately after the Ministry of Education has issued a notice for schools and colleges to be prepared for reopening at any time from February 4.

All the 18 hall provosts, pro vice-chancellors (VC) on Tuesday keeping VC Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman in chair, the committee recommended the university authority in this regard.

Confirming the matter, DU Proctor Prof AKM Golam Rabbani said that the recommendation may be placed before the Academic Council of the university which is scheduled to be held on January 31.

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“Since the provosts recommended it, hopefully this will be passed in any decision making body of the university which will be determined by the VC, Rabbani, also the member secretary of the committee told UNB.

Those who were staying at the halls legally before closure caused by Covid-19 outbreak, and were the last year or final semester students in honours and masters classes will only get inside the halls after opening considering priority on their last academic exams, Rabbani said.

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Earlier on March 16, the DU authorities suspended all classes and examinations from March 18 till March 28 which extended for several times in line with the decision of the education ministry in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country.

Buet, and many other public universities and finally all the educational institutions went on indefinite time closure. In the meantime, they have run virtual classes to avoid session-jam.

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According to the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (Ducsu) polls 2019 voter list, there were as many as 42,000 students in the university. Almost 40% of them reside in the hall along with many illegal students.

So there was a chance of getting infected by the Covid-19 as many students need to stay in the hall. General students in March 2020 protested to shut down the university and recently cried for opening up fearing loss in studies.

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Also at least four DU students have been committed suicide during the lock-down due to go on depression for not involving into regular activities, claimed experts and DU teachers.