Regardless of how bad the Covid situation gets, in any country, closing down schools is the absolute last decision that should be considered as a potential measure to mitigate any further spikes in the number of infections.
But, given the situation is steadily getting better even in the face of new variants, it no longer makes sense to consider schools being closed. If anything, any such decision only works to indicate that there are gaps in any given government’s measures towards more fruitful solutions, such as vaccination drives.
It is heartening to see UNICEF finally chiming in on this matter, with an estimated 616 million children already being severely impacted by school closures both partial and full over the last two years, the consequences of any further closures stand to be nothing short of devastating for the future.
We agree with UNICEF’s recommendation that the only, realistic mitigation measure that should be considered by governments around the world, including our own administration, is to speed up vaccination drives in schools, with an emphasis on teachers and students.
While Bangladesh has made great headway in vaccinating its overall population, more needs to be done. At this point of the Covid-19 pandemic, it no longer makes sense to simply prioritize frontline workers when it comes to vaccine availability, given that supply is hardly an issue anymore.
The cost is too great; we cannot allow Bangladesh to regress back into darkness. School closures make no sense in combating Covid-19 anymore, and even considering it should be out of the question.
