After a year of immense suffering due to the outbreak of coronavirus, the authorities of Dhaka University (DU) have decided to open up the residential halls (dormitories) for its final year and semester examinees at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels on March 13.
The decision was made on Sunday at the academic council meeting of the university.
Earlier, the provost committee of DU on January 26 recommended reopening the residential halls only for the final year and semester examinees at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels of the university.
The preliminary move for opening dormitories came immediately after the Ministry of Education has issued a notice for schools and colleges to be prepared for reopening at any time from February 4.
All the 18 hall provosts, pro-vice-chancellors (VC) on Tuesday keeping VC Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman in the chair, the committee recommended the university authority in this regard.
On March 16, 2020, the DU authorities suspended all classes and examinations from March 18 till March 28 which extended for several times in line with the decision of the education ministry in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country.
BUET, and many other public universities and finally all the educational institutions went on indefinite time closure. In the meantime, they have run virtual classes to avoid session-jam.
According to the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (Ducsu) polls 2019 voter list, there were as many as 42,000 students in the university. Almost 40% of them reside in the hall along with many illegal students.
So there was a chance of getting infected by the Covid-19 as many students need to stay in the hall. General students in March 2020 protested to shut down the university and recently cried for opening up fearing a loss in studies.
Also, at least four DU students have been committed suicide during the lock-down due to go on depression for not involving into regular activities, claimed experts and DU teachers.
