Education Minister Dipu Moni at a recent meeting said that the practice of double shifts in schools will eventually be discontinued.
Furthermore, schools currently operating in double shifts will also face restrictions in the future.
The purpose behind these measures is to effectively implement the new curriculum and guarantee student learning.
In a meeting regarding clarifying the rules of the manpower structure of private educational institutions (schools and colleges) and MPO policy 2021, the education minister gave instructions about not opening new shifts in schools as well.
However, a final decision will be taken by the ministry after conducting workshops later on.
The meeting was held at the International Mother Language Institute on June 25.
Director General of the Directorate Of Secondary and Higher Education Professor Nehal Ahmed said: "There was a discussion at the meeting, but nothing is finalized yet. The final decision will be taken after a workshop. Teaching extra students and running double shifts is also not possible in the new curriculum.”
He expressed his concern over the imbalance where certain schools have empty seats while others are overcrowded, stating that it is unfair. “We are training teachers to upgrade the educational institutions.”
Sources said double shifts can be opened only at the secondary level subject to fulfillment of administrative structure, physical infrastructure, maximum class-section conditions, and if there are enough students in two extra sections.
Furthermore, each class will be allowed to have only 40 students.
Furthermore, the education minister emphasized that the opening of new classes and sections will not be permitted for grades six to ten.
Rasheda K Chowdhury, former advisor to the caretaker government, and executive director of the Campaign for Popular Education applauded the initiative of not allowing double shifts at schools.
“The implementation of this initiative is driven by good intentions. However, we need to consider institutional capacity, teacher capacity, and how monitoring will be conducted. It is easy to provide instructions, but the implementation is challenging,” she said.
She said that the current disparity, where one educational institution has 25 students while another has 90, should be eliminated.
