Cut summer vacation

Educational institutions which incurred academic loss due to hartals and blockades of the BNP-led alliance can reduce their summer vacation by half to recover the loss, suggested participants at a meeting at the education ministry yesterday.

They said the affected institutions, after discussions with the management committees and students, could select seven days out of the 14-day summer vacation to make up for lost time.

The education ministry held the meeting with heads of different schools and colleges and chairmen of several education boards to find out different ways to recover the lost time.     

"All educational institutions did not suffer equally in the hartals and blockades. So a unified decision would not be applicable for all institutions," Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said after the meeting.

"But we have to recover the loss. We can do so if our teachers make an extra effort to take more classes," he said.

Summer vacation in schools across the country starts on May 14.

The minister also suggested institutions take classes on weekly holidays or take additional classes at the end of each school day.

Regarding the vacation schedule during Ramadan, Nahid said the decision would be taken later.

Earlier, some teachers opined reducing the summer vacation. The BNP-led 20-party alliance enforced countrywide hartals and blockades for three months from January 6 to press for their demand for an immediate election under a non-party impartial administration.