News Desk :
The government has ordered immediate closure of Qawmi madrasas and other religious schools that are open amid the coronavirus lockdown, reports bdnews24.com
The education ministry said on Tuesday that some residential and non-residential madrasas remained open despite government orders to shut down, which is “very risky” amid a record surge in COVID-19 cases.
The Technical and Madrasah Education Division under the ministry said in a notice that no negligence in implementing the shutdown order will be tolerated.
The order is not applicable to the orphanages.
All the educational institutions across Bangladesh have been closed since mid-March last year. Some Qawmi madrasas were allowed to reopen in July 2020 on condition that they will follow the health rules properly.
The government had announced the reopening of the schools and colleges by the end of March this year, but the plan finally stalled due to the resurgence of coronavirus infection.
In the notice ordering the extension of the shutdown, the government ordered the Qawmi madrasas to stop operations as well.
On March 26 last year, the government had declared general holidays along with a transport shutdown instead of enforcing lockdown as the country was witnessing the surge in coronavirus transmission.
As the country has been experiencing record-breaking Covid cases for the past few days, the government on Sunday announced to impose a weeklong countrywide lockdown. Bangladesh recorded more than 7,000 new coronavirus cases for the second day in a row Monday, as the country is struggling with the rising number of infections during its second wave.
Health authorities recorded 7,075 fresh Covid-19 cases in 24 hours till Monday morning. And with 52 new deaths during the period, the coronavirus fatalities rose to 9,318. The mortality rate, however, remained static at 1.45 percent.
Bangladesh has so far recorded 644,439 coronavirus cases, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
