Decision on SSC, HSC exams to base on scientific evidence: 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."

"The educational life of students has been turned upside down all over the world by the pandemic. However, it would be unscientific to reopen educational institutions until the infection rate drops to 5 percent or below that. The current test positive rate is 24 percent in Bangladesh; it is even 50 percent or more in some districts," Dipu Moni said.

The education minister was addressing an online programme of the Crime Reporters Association Bangladesh (CRAB).

"A classroom does accommodate more than 25 learners in developed countries but the ones in our country are packed so tightly that students have to sit very close to each other," the minister said.

Developed countries had tried to reopen educational institutions several times. But they were forced to shut them down following spiralling infections and fatalities, she added.

"So, reopening educational institutions during this high transmission period of Covid-19 is absurd," Dipu Moni said.

"I talk to parents at different times. Although some of them demand reopening of schools, others said they would not send their children back to school if it was reopened during this time," she added.