Education Minister
No JSC, JDC exams this year, says Edu Minister
The government has decided against holding this year's Junior School Certificate (JSC) and Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) examinations, said Education Minister Dipu Moni on Tuesday.
“No JSC, JDC examinations will be held this year and the students will be upgraded to the next class through temporary tests,” she said while speaking at a programme on the 75th birthday of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina held at Dhaka Mohila Polytechnic Institute in city’s Agargaon.
Referring to SSC and HSC examinations, the minister said “We have taken all-out preparation and I hope the examinations will be held in time as per the schedule.”
She advised the students to devote to gaining knowledge instead of running after GPA-5.
Schools cannot charge fees for assignments: Dipu Moni
Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni on Friday said that the education institutions under no circumstances can charge money for the assignments in the assessment of learning results of students.
"Educational institutions should not take any kind of fee in the name of the assignment to evaluate the results of the students," she said firmly while responding to reporters' questions at the Chandpur Circuit House at 3pm on Friday.
READ: University students must complete vaccine registration by Sept 27: Dipu Moni
Schools have been closed for a long time. If students have dues, it can be realized in installments or some other arrangements. The dues should not be mixed up with assignments," she said.
The minister further said that everyone should continue to try to abide by the hygiene rules.
READ: New curricula in schools, colleges from 2023: Dipu Moni
“We are coordinating with everyone so that health guidelines are followed properly in school. These rules are not only for Covid and dengue safety, If students get used to maintaining hygiene practices, it will help them have a healthier future,” she said.
University students must complete vaccine registration by Sept 27: Dipu Moni
All the university students must complete vaccine registration by September 27 so that syndicate and academic councils can decide to reopen their universities, said Education Minister Dipu Moni on Tuesday.
The minister said this after a virtual meeting on reopening universities with Vice-Chancellors, representatives of University Grants Commission (UGC), secretary for Secondary and Higher Education division, president of the national technical committee on Covid-19 and officials concerned.
Deputy Minister for Education Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury also attended the meeting.
According to a decision of the meeting, the teachers, students and officials of all the universities of the country will have to register for vaccination against Covid-19 by September 27.
Meeting on reopening educational institutions today
An inter-ministerial meeting will be held on Sunday to take a decision on reopening educational institutions.
“ The ministry will hold a meeting to come to a decision,” MA Khair, public relations officer of the Education Ministry, told UNB.
Earlier, on Aug 26, the government extended the closure of secondary and higher secondary-level educational institutions until September 11.
The government shut the educational institutions on March 17, 2020 after the country reported its first Covid-19 cases on March 8 and later the closure was extended several times.
On Friday, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moin said primary, secondary and higher secondary educational institutions in the country will reopen on September 12.
“The decision was taken in a joint meeting of the Education Ministry, Ministry of Primary and Mass education and the National Technical Advisory Committee held on Thursday night,” she said at a function in Chandpur sadar upazila.
Read: Covid positivity rate shrinks to 10%, cases and deaths continue declining
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to reopen all the schools, colleges, including madrasas, on September 12 as per the decision,” Dipu Moni said.
Regarding the opening of universities, the minister said the decision is still pending as the Vice Chancellors of public universities want to see all the students are vaccinated-- at least the first dose of Covid-19 vaccines.
“We’ll hold another meeting with them. If they want, they can reopen with other educational institutions or fix another date following the decision of the syndicate committees of their universities,” said Dipu Moni.
Read: Decision on vaccinating school students soon: DGHS DG
Even after reopening, she said, the educational institutions will have to send mandatory regular reports on abiding by health guidelines and Covid-19 situation.
Will make up whatever students missed out on during closure: Dipu Moni
Remedial lessons will be provided to students who have missed out on online classes and other alternative educational activities during the time educational institutions were closed due to covid restrictions.
Education Minister Dr. Dipu Moni said this while talking to the press in Chandpur Saturday.
“We opted for online and television lessons during school closure. Besides, we have relied on assignments for evaluation during this time,” she said.
Then the minister conceded the fact that some students could not be brought under these programmes due to the socioeconomic status quo, and revealed that her ministry is formulating a specific plan to make up for this once the institutions reopen.
Read: Schools, colleges to reopen on Sept 12: Dipu Moni
“Although we managed to reach a huge portion of students through assignments, some still missed out. We are working on a plan to bring all students up to speed with the current curriculum and plan on providing remedial lessons to those who missed out,” she said.
Earlier on Saturday, Deputy Minister for Education Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel said that the Ministry of Education is planning to take classes one day a week after the reopening of schools and colleges on September 12.
Nowfel said this while talking to journalists after attending a function at Chattogram Medical College and Hospital.
Read: Scientific evidence to guide decision on SSC, HSC exams: Dipu Moni
"We're hopeful of starting physical classes following the Education Minister's announcement and our primary plan is to take classes one day a week but it may be changed," he said.
Efforts will continue to take the SSC and HSC exams in-person with a brief syllabus, but the assignments will continue as before, he said.
The long closure of schools and colleges due to the Covid-19 pandemic has created mental pressure on the students and there had been efforts to continue education online but that was not enough, Nowfel added.
Covid-19 in Bangladesh: Schools, colleges to remain closed until Aug 31
The government has again extended the closure of secondary and higher secondary-level educational institutions until August 31 due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in the country.
The decision was taken considering the safety of students, teachers and staffers in consultation with the National Advisory Committee on Covid-19, said an official release signed by MA Khair, public relations officer of the Education Ministry on Thursday.
Earlier, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni said the government had decided to reopen educational institutions, particularly the primary, secondary and higher secondary ones, in Bangladesh on June 13 if the Covid-19 situation does not deteriorate.
Later, the government announced the extension of closure of schools and colleges till July 31, and the Education Ministry issued a notice in this regard.
The government shut educational institutions on March 17 last year after the country reported its first Covid-19 cases on March 8.
Read: Covid-19: Bangladesh lowers vaccination age to 25
The closure was extended several times after that.
On February 22, the education minister announced that university classes would resume on May 24. Residential halls were also scheduled to be reopened on May 17. But that did not happen due to the worsening pandemic.
Covid situation in Bangladesh
As the Delta variant of Covid-19 engulfed the country, Bangladesh recorded 239 more deaths caused by the virus in 24 hours till Thursday morning.
Besides, 15,271 new people came out Covid positive during the period after the test of 52,282 samples, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The fresh cases took the country’s Covid death tally to 20,255 today while the caseload to 1,226,253.
Read: Covid in Bangladesh: Daily toll remains above 200; 15,271 more infected
The country has been seeing nearly 200 deaths a day for the past two weeks, shattering the records of daily cases and deaths almost every other day.
Meanwhile, the daily test-positivity rate declined slightly to 29.21% from Wednesday's 30.12% while the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a 5% or below rate.
However, the case fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.65 % during the period, said the DGHS.
Scientific evidence to guide decision on SSC, HSC exams: Dipu Moni
The decision on SSC, HSC, and equivalent exams will be taken soon in a scientific and controlled manner, Education Minister Dipu Moni said Wednesday.
"We make decisions based on the advice of the National Advisory Committee on Covid-19," she said.
Talking about the demand to reopen educational institutions, the minister said, "We cannot put the lives of students at risk now by bringing them back to classrooms when the Covid-19 situation is getting worse in the country."
Also read: Bangladesh sees record high daily Covid cases of 8,822; 115 more die
"The educational life of students has been turned upside down by the pandemic all over the world. However, it would be unscientific to reopen educational institutions until the infection rate drops to 5% or below that. The current test positive rate is 24% in Bangladesh; it is even 50% or more in some districts," Dipu Moni said.
Decision on SSC and HSC exams soon: Education Minister
Minister of Education Dr. Dipu Moni has said that a decision regarding SSC and HSC examination would be announced soon.
The education minister said this while addressing a virtual program on distributing stipends and tuition fees among 43 lac students on Tuesday.
Also read: HSC, SSC exams to be held on brief syllabuses: Dipu Moni
She also advised the students not to be worried about SSC and HSC examinations.
She said, "We have published the results of the SSC examination held in 2020 and evaluated HSC results in an alternative method.
Also read: HC questions exclusion of SSC-2016 passed students from admission test "
Sixteen students from 10 educational institutions from four upazilas took part in the virtual stipend giving ceremony.
Deputy Minister for Education Barrister Mahibul Hasan Chowdhury was present as a special guest at the ceremony.
University students to be vaccinated for reopening dorms: UGC
The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Tuesday decided to vaccinate university students as soon as possible so that their dormitories could be reopened.
The decision was taken at a virtual meeting chaired by Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni. The vice-chancellors of public universities and officials of the Education Ministry and UGC took part in the meeting.
As per the instructions of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, all the university students would be vaccinated on priority basis starting with residential ones.
Also read: Bangladesh sees rise in Covid infections; 41 more die
The meeting decided to permit all the public and private universities to conduct online and direct examinations at their respective university campuses.
The academic councils of the respective universities would take the final decisions regarding the online and direct examinations following the UGC instructions.
Also read: Take exams but don’t reopen halls: UGC
Dorms will be reopened making it sure that all the students are vaccinated and the academic activities of the universities are run regularly, said a UGC media release.
The universities were asked to prepare a Recovery Plan according to their capacity and the social reality so that the damage caused to the students during the pandemic could be minimised, the release added.
Covid-19: Educational institutions reopening may be delayed
A recent upward trend in daily coronavirus infection rate could force the government to keep educational institutions shut longer than expected.