Students rallied and formed human chains in parts of the country on Monday to demand that the educational institutions, closed for the pandemic, are immediately reopened.
The government shut down educational institutions on March 17 last year for the safety of the students as the Covid-19 virus struck the country, reports UNB.
On Monday, many students took to the streets as the ongoing lockdown has announced another week of lockdown with easing much of the curbs on public transportation and movement.
A human chain protest under the banner of "General Students" was held in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka on Monday.
The protesters said they are getting increasingly frustrated and worried about session jams as schools, colleges and universities remained closed for more than 14 months.
Similar protests were organised in different places of the country including, Jahangirnagar University, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet Shahid Minar, Thakurgaon town, Rajshahi, Bogura town, Tangail Shaheed Minar, Islamic University in Kushtia and Haji Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University in Dinajpur.
The protestors said that the decision to keep everything except the educational institution open does not make any sense and urged the policymakers to consider students' future.
They were also almost unanimously against online exams and classes as they stated that the benefits of online education failed to reach most of the students due to the lack of access of many students to digital technologies.
The students also said that many of them are going through clinical depression because of the status quo by pointing out how the suicide rate has increased among the students of public universities during the pandemic.
They said that they are willing to return to the residential halls of their respective universities following vaccination and urged the concerned authorities to make a decision accordingly.
The students warned of more protests to press for their demand.