Children’s health, safety should be top priority
Educational institutions should be opened with students' safety as the top priority, development practitioners said at the launching of "Safe Back to School (SB2S)" project.
Ensuring psycho-social counselling, training up the teachers on protocols related to Covid-19 and mental health, ensuring proper facilities such as soap, disinfectant, mask and water supply, and running awareness campaign to bring back girl children to school are the activities that should be undertaken by the govt and the stakeholders, they also stressed.
Fifteen international NGOs including Save the Children, Brac, World Vision and Plan International launched the project together at The Westin Dhaka in Gulshan-2 with the aim of working with the government in the next six months to ensure the safe return of students to schools.
Presenting a keynote paper, Brac Senior Director KAM Morshed said, "During the period when schools were closed, incidents of domestic violence increased and many students dropped out."
Mentioning a report of the World Bank, he said, the learning process of all students through online and television mediums were not entirely effective as these methods were not highly accessible for everyone.
He also raised concern about social distancing at schools due to the large number of students.
Speaking as chief guest, Education Minister Dipu Moni said although educational institutions were closed, government's initiatives to educate the students did not stop.
She also said the government arranged an assignment system so that everyone could be involved with learning activities.
She also said, "Depending on the situation we will open up schools. But we won't take any risk. Health and safety issues will be given priority."
Directorate of Primary Education Director General Dr Sayed Md Golam Faruk said, "We have a guideline to open up schools by maintaining proper health protocols. We will also ensure training for 66 thousand teachers on mental health."
Unicef (Bangladesh) Deputy Representative (OIC) Veera Mendonca said, "Closure of educational instructions have impacted students all over the world. The longer the students remain out of school, the more likely it is that they will drop out. "
"We can't wait for the pandemic to go away, we need to adapt and live with it. Therefore, before opening up physical schools, children's health safety should be prioritised," she stressed.
Giving a brief about the project, Save the Children (Bangladesh) Director for Programme Development and Quality, Reefat Bin Sattar, said, "We are going to work in the areas of school readiness and community readiness to help the government reach their goal of safely returning students to school."
DPE Additional Director General Sohel Ahmed; High Commission of Canada's Head of Aid Phedra Moon Morri, and Save the Children (Bangladesh) Country Director Onno Van Manen were also present at the programme.
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