Maintaining schools’ academic calendar uncertain

Ensuring study progress of students according to this year's academic calendar has become uncertain as many of them are not able to participate in the televised lessons.

The lessons are broadcast on the satellite channel Sangsad Television, which is not available everywhere in the country.

Besides, a good number of students consider the recorded lectures substandard.

The Ministry of Education started airing the recorded lessons on the state-run channel for secondary students from class VI to IX from Sunday.

Azwad Yusha, an eighth-grader, said, "I watched a teacher teaching students how to find profit and loss, which we learned in class IV. He literally talked about it for 10 minutes, which could have been used to discuss other topics."

"A nursery student can define what profit and loss are. But that is okay too, compared to what comes next," he said.

"The teacher read a passage, selected some words and phrases and wrote their meanings. I would have been somewhat satisfied if the teacher said the correct meanings!" he commented on the English lesson.

Sabbir Hossain, a student of Class VII from Char Fasson upazila in Bhola district, said he tried to watch the lessons but failed as the channel is not available in his area.

Director General of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education Professor Dr Syed Md Golam Faruk said they had received some recommendations from different quarters about the recorded lessons. 

"We are trying to upgrade the quality of such lessons by skilled teachers," he said.

Meanwhile, the ministry's top officials are yet to make any plan to minimise the disruption in the study progress due to closure of educational institutions following the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country. 

Professor Faruk told The Business Standard it is indeed the case that study progress according to the calendar is being hampered due to the shutdown.

"Actually, we do not have any plan yet to recover the lapse in studies due to closure of schools. We do not know when the situation will improve," he said.

Professor Fouzia, principal of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, told The Business Standard the ministry will definitely find out a solution during the upcoming days. 

We have not got any direction in this regard yet, she said. 

"It will depend on how long the virus situation continues in Bangladesh. The shutdown might be prolonged if the situation worsens. 

"It will also be a challenge to hold higher secondary certificate examinations, junior school certificate examinations and term examinations," Professor Fouzia added.

The government extended the shutdown of all schools to April 9 from March 31 to contain the spread of coronavirus. 

The ministry does not know when the educational institutions will reopen.

As per the 2020 academic calendar, six days between March 17 and April 25 are government holidays for different occasions.

Moreover, the schools are scheduled to remain closed for 31 days from late April, mostly for Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr.

Earlier, the government announced that all educational institutions would remain closed from March 17 to 31 as a precautionary measure. 

Bangladesh reported its first death from novel coronavirus on March 18. There were 49 cases in the country as of Monday.