Zakir Azad ,Cumilla

It is feared that 40,000 students will not return to school in Cumilla due to poverty following Covid - 19 situation.
A section of students is happy with the news of reopening the school which was closed due to the epidemic in Corona after a year and a half.

There is another class of students in trouble. The decision to open the school on September 12 does not bring happiness to the children who are in trouble. Because these children born in poor families have become full-fledged working children by keeping books in the poverty created in Corona.

The main issue now is the struggle of the students to survive. Meanwhile, several private schools, including several kindergartens, were closed due to the long-running Corona crisis. Even the children and students of this closed educational institution do not know when they will be able to go to school again.

According to various sources related to education, about 40,000 children have been deprived of primary education in Comilla district due to various reasons including poverty caused by the Corona Corona epidemic and financial insecurity of families. Of these, 6,000 are in the Cumilla City Corporation area. Most of the students are afraid of not being able to return to school.

The non-formal education bureau has started work with the help of development agency BRAC to determine the number of students dropping out of schools closed due to the epidemic in Corona. The Bureau of Non-Formal Education initiated this program through a project called Out of School Children under the Primary Education Development Program (PEDP-4). Their goal is to get students back to school by identifying dropout rates.
Ashutosh Chakraborty, regional manager of the Cumilla BRAC Education Program, said there was a risk of dropping out due to the long school closure in Corona. The list of students who fell in the storm shows that the number of assignments submitted by the students last year suggests that those who did not submit will not return to school. In this context, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education has started a survey of students aged 8 to 14 years. A mapping of the areas where there are out-of-school students will identify the drop-outs by checking and sorting the students.
He added that the survey found that students in rural areas are more likely to drop out due to the long closure of schools. But the survey is being conducted to determine the number of students who have dropped out.

Ashutosh Chakraborty said a survey conducted till March this year listed 40,000 students in Cumilla district as affected by the storm. 6,000 of them are in the Cumilla City Corporation area.

However, we do not call this list complete. Because the list is being verified. The headmasters of government primary schools in the district have been asked to identify the students of their own schools in the list that fell after the opening of educational institutions on September 12. Once the verification is complete, the district's non-formal education bureau will begin work on returning students to school.

Cumilla District Non-Formal Education Bureau Assistant Director Sheikh Nazmul Haque said, poor and indigent families are engaging children in various activities due to declining income due to corona. In this, a class of businessmen and owners of institutions are engaging children in various activities for low wages. This has increased the number of dropped children.

The Ministry of Non-Formal Education has started work to bring these students back to school. BRAC has taken charge of Cumilla as an associate. They are already holding an awareness meeting with the survey to identify the children who fell in the storm. Although a list of storms has been made, it is being verified.

Cumilla District Primary Education Officer about the return of children to school. Abdul Mannan said that the students have suffered the most due to Corona.

Specially primary level students. With the opening of the school on September 12, the school teachers and parents have to work to bring all the students back to the campus through monitoring. The matter needs to be monitored properly.

"If no student comes to the school even after two or two and a half months of opening, we will catch it," he said. However, our main goal is to get 100% of the students back to school.