Blockade enforced by Awami League (AL) led 14-party combine demanding electoral reforms started again yesterday as no headway could be made to ease the rigid stance between two major political alliances -- BNP-led four-party and AL-led 14-party.

In the face of the volatile political situation, earlier announced month-long vacation for Puja, Ramadan and Eid had to be extended in most of the schools, colleges and universities and the authorities had to postpone examinations. Annual examinations of classes one to nine scheduled to start yesterday could not be held.

Different teachers' associations suggested that the political parties keep examinations outside the purview of their blockade programme.

Few classes were held from July 3 to August 17 as teachers and employees of non-government educational institutions across the country observed strike demanding better pay form the government exchequer.

Teachers could not make up the academic loss even after keeping institutions open on weekly holidays due to political unrest and Eid and Puja vacation, said leaders of Shikkhak-Karmachari Oikya Jote, a platform of eight organisations of teachers and employees.

"Keeping in mind the academic loss due to our strike, we have shortened the syllabuses and decided to keep the institutions open even on public holidays but we could not make up the loss due to political unrest," said Prof Rafiqa Afroj, principal of Ispahani Girls School and College.

Prof Rafiqa Afroj, also president of Bangladesh Teachers Association, said November and December are most important period for the students because final examinations of class one to nine, test examinations of class ten and class twelve are usually held during the last two months of the year.

Authorities of different educational institutions are now considering taking examinations and holding classes at night if the political parties relax the blockade at night.

Referring to the academic calendar, which instructs the government and non-government secondary schools and junior secondary schools to take monthly tests to improve the quality of education, Prof Harun-ur-Rashid Sikder, chairman of the Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Dhaka said the school authorities could not follow the academic calendar completely due to the political unrest.

The education ministry on January 8 had also asked the schools to follow the dates fixed for holding terminal, pre-test and test examinations and publishing the results, he said, adding that none of the instructions could be implemented properly due to the same reason.

Amid the continued political impasse, teachers, students and guardians are worried about classes and examinations.

According to the schedule, annual examinations of class one to nine are to be held from November 20 to December 10 as scholarship examinations of class eight and class five will begin on from December 11 and December 19.

Test examinations of class ten will have to be completed by November 22 but the school authorities are facing problem to take the examination as per the schedule. Students of many schools had to appear at the test examination on last weekly holidays -- Friday and Saturday. Some of the institutions arranged tests for two subjects in a day.

Authorities of higher secondary schools/colleges are also worried as HSC test examinations are scheduled to begin on December 2 while their class tests could not be held in time due to the political agitation.

There are only 228 workdays at the government schools, as there are 85 government-designated holidays and 52 weekly ones, while private English medium schools have even less -- about 176 workdays due to their two-day weekends.

Due to political unrest, many public universities have been forced to reschedule their examinations, adding to the already acute session jam.

A student of the Arts or Social Science faculty of Dhaka University has to spend around seven years to complete a four-year undergraduate course, reports the National Education Commission. It requires 13 years to complete honours course under the Institute of Fine Arts of the same university, the report says.

No doubt the political confrontation between the two major political alliances will prolong the session jam, said AAMS Arefin Siddique, former president of Dhaka University Teachers Association.

Dhaka University (DU) authorities decided to postpone all examinations and classes until November 25 while the examinations of fourth year honours courses under Arts Faculty have been suspended until January.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Chhatra League-led Chhatra Sangram Parishad (CSP) has called an indefinite strike on the DU campus from yesterday following the clashes between CSP and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal.

In last 50 days, Dhaka University classes were open only for three days. No examination was held during the last two months as there was Eid and Puja vacation and fear of violence during the remaining days.

Classes of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology that were scheduled to resume yesterday could not be held due to the blockade.

Rajshahi University authorities again extended their Eid vacation until November 25.

All the public universities including Jahangirnagar University, Chittagong University, Islamic University, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University and National University are facing similar situations as their examinations and classes have been suspended several times.