Schools with less than 50 students to be merged

Schools in the country with less than 50 students in the last 10 years will be merged with neighbouring schools, said Ministry of Primary and Mass Education Secretary Farid Ahmed on Thursday.

He said this at a briefing held at the conference room of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education at the Secretariat on Thursday.

The secretary said, “We will look at the picture of the last 10 years. Schools with less than 50 students will be merged with neighbouring schools. We have found about 300 such schools. We are verifying them.

“However, all schools will not be closed down indiscriminately. Decisions will be taken after considering all the circumstances including local realities.”

He said there is a upazila called Belaichhari in Rangamati district, where there is a school with only 42 students and the number has been 42 for the last few years. "We will not merge that school.

“Because those 42 students come from a distance of about 7 to 8 kilometers. So we will consider that context. So we will not take an entirely general decision. Our policy decision is schools where there have been 5-7 students for the last few years will be merged.”