Schools may remain open Saturday in future: Education minister

Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel has indicated to keep schools open on Saturdays next year to avoid controversy as the issue of whether or not to keep schools open during Ramadan moved to the court this year.

At a discussion organised at the International Mother Language Institute on the occasion of Independence Day on Tuesday (March 26) by the Education Ministry, the minister said that an initiative will be taken to continue the classes on a few Saturdays of the coming year.

Mentionable, there are weekly holidays on Friday and Saturday in educational institutions of the country at present.

This year, the government decided to keep primary schools open for 10 days and secondary schools for 15 days during the Ramadan. The issue later went to the court.

The High Court ordered the closure of the schools, and later, the Appellate Division upheld the HC order.

Stating that the government does not want to go into such a situation next year, Nowfel said, "Various types of propaganda were circulated about opening schools in Ramadan. As the issue came up this year, we will try in the future how to bring it into the framework.

“There are 52 Saturdays in a year. We can stop the controversy that is going on regarding keeping schools open during Ramadan by keeping schools open on Saturdays.

The minister said that a plan will be formulated in advance for this purpose, so that no one can create confusion among the people going to the court over such an issue.

Like previous years, the month of fasting was included in the list of school holidays this year too. This year, vacations were supposed to start in secondary and lower secondary schools from March 10 and primary schools from March 11.

However, to meet the education deficit of students, the government decided to continue classes in schools during Ramadan by partially revising the list of holidays and curriculum.

But lawyer Mahmuda Khanam filed a writ petition with the HC challenging that decision. After hearing her petition, the HC bench of Justice KM Kamrul Quader and Justice Khizir Hayat suspended the government decision to keep the schools open.

After that, the state applied to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) requesting to stay the HC order.

Later, the Appellate Division Chamber Justice M Inayetur Rahim kept the matter for hearing before the regular bench of the Appellate Division without granting a stay on the order of the High Court.

On March 12, the Appellate Division of the SC stayed the HC order to close the country's primary and secondary schools during Ramadan. As a result of this SC verdict, all schools in the country are open now.

After the decision of the Appellate Division, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education announced that classes will be held in primary schools for the first ten days of fasting.