The government has yet to decide when and how it will start administering Covid-19 vaccines to students of universities and colleges.
Health sector officials said the authorities had not directed them to move forward with plans of vaccinating students.
“Thus far, the government has directed inoculating teachers at all educational institutions across the country. The Education Ministry has provided us with the data of around 800,000 teachers. We are now working on that aspect,” said Dr Md Shamsul Haque, line director (MNC and AH) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
“We can start the process of immunizing students against Covid-19 once directives are issued,” he added.
On February 22, Education Minister Dipu Moni announced that 130,000 residential students at public universities would be vaccinated by May 17.
The student dormitories of universities across the country are set to reopen on May 17, and classes will resume on May 24
Meanwhile, the teachers and staff of educational institutions started signing up for vaccines through the surokkha.gov.bd website from February 25.
To allow students to register for the jab, the government will need to relax the age limit — which is now set at 40 years and above.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Wednesday told reporters that the age limit would be revised once more vaccines arrived in the country.
He also said teachers and students would be inoculated soon, but did not mention probable dates for the vaccination.
Asked about the issue, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education Director General Prof Syed Md Golam Faruk said: “The prime minister issued a directive for the vaccination of teachers and staff members on a priority basis. We will start inoculating students before the institutions reopen.”
Also Read - Schools, colleges to reopen on March 30
It is to be noted that the government has decided to reopen schools and colleges from March 30.
The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting at the Secretariat on Saturday, Education Minister Dipu Moni told the media.
Meanwhile, the government on Tuesday decided to include teachers and officials of kindergartens in the vaccine registration process as well.
According to the Ministry of Education, there are 406,469 teachers and 162,861 employees at the secondary and higher secondary levels.
On the other hand, there are 15,524 teachers working at universities and 685,400 teachers at the primary level, according to data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics.
