Shahnaz Aktar used to work at a kindergarten school in the Mohammadpur area of Dhaka.
She used to earn Tk 10,000 a month - enough to meet education expenses of her two sisters.
However, due to prolonged closure of academic institutions due to the Covid pandemic, she lost her job last year - quite expectedly though.
She has been searching jobs since then, but is yet to get any positive response from anywhere.
Shahnaz is one example of many teachers of kindergarten schools who have lost jobs in this pandemic, as the schools cannot pay salaries to their teachers and staffers.
Hundreds of kindergarten schools across the country are on the verge of closure due to the financial crisis caused by long-time closure of academic institutions following the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to insiders, several kindergarten owners have already closed their activities, as they have failed to meet house rents, teachers' salaries and other expenditures due to fallout of the pandemic.
According to the Bangladesh Kindergarten School O College Oikya Parishad, there are around 60,000 kindergarten schools across the country.
Of them, some 30,000 schools cannot continue their academic activities because of the financial issues, it said.
The country's educational institutions have remained closed since March 17, 2020, due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Since then, the government has extended the duration of closure several times in light of the Covid-19 situation.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said that she had directed the authorities concerned to reopen schools and colleges shortly.
Just a day after, Education Minister Dipu Moni on Friday told journalists in Chandpur that schools and colleges would reopen on September 12.
Like Shahnaz, Sheikh Kaiser is another jobless teacher. He used to work at the Learning Point Cadet Academy in Nabiganj upazila of Habiganj district.
The school has recently shut down its activities, leaving 13 teachers, including Mr Kaiser, jobless.
"I am trying to switch profession, and if possible, I will go abroad for job," said the frustrated teacher.
Nazam Uddin, founding headmaster of Anzuman Residential Model School at Adabar in the capital, said his school had two branches.
Starting in 2003, it is a government registered school with 600 students.
Recently, one of the two branches was shut down, while another one is only continuing official activities, he said.
"I started online classes, but maximum students had no ability to use necessary devices and internet," he added.
The Oikya Parishad's Chairman Iqbal Bahar Chowdhury said many owners had lost capital in the last 17 months as their students dropped out - schools located in small towns are the worst affected.
About 20 per cent of around 30,000 vulnerable schools may be permanently closed this year due to the financial crisis, he observed.
About 1.0 million teachers used to work in the kindergarten schools; they are now staring at uncertain future.
"Many teachers switched to odd jobs, while many others remained jobless," said Iqbal Bahar.
It is a matter of great sorrow that some of the teachers were even forced to choose driving easy-bikes, selling fruits and even working as day labourers, he ventilated his frustration.
Non-MPO schools and colleges struggling too
Many non-MPO secondary schools and colleges have been struggling to survive too due to the financial crisis caused by the pandemic.
More than 5,000 non-MPO schools and colleges have been struggling to pay due salaries to teachers over the months, said leaders of the Bangladesh Teachers Association.
Nazrul Islam Rony, president of the Bangladesh Teachers Association, said around 100,000 people, including teachers and staffers, work in more than 5,000 non-MPO schools and colleges across the country.
Since schools have no physical activities during this pandemic, a significant number of students are not paying tuition fees, he said.
Many guardians also cannot meet expenses while many have left cities for villages due to loss of income in the cities.
In this situation, teachers and staffers are facing a great financial challenge, he said, adding that many teachers had lost interest in this profession too.
Financial support needed
In this critical juncture of time, people involved with the academic institutes wanted government support to help them get back on their feet.
If the owners do not get financial support, for instance, in the form of soft loans, from the government, many of them won't be able to resume the academic activities, they added
The Oikya Parishad's Chairman Iqbal Bahar said that they had sought help from the prime minister's office, education ministry, and primary and mass education ministry, directorate of secondary and higher education, directorate of primary education, divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners, but to no avail.
Anzuman Residential Model School's head teacher Nazam Uddin said his school was a registered one.
"But our registered schools also did not get any financial support from the authorities concerned," he said.
Now the dues of house rents of his school stand at about Tk 200,000, he claimed.
If the government provides them with soft loans, they can start schools again, he said.
However, it will take minimum two to three years to return to the pre-pandemic stage, said Mr Nazam.
Talking to the FE, Prof Abdul Mannan, a former UGC chairman, said the Covid-19 pandemic had impacted education sector worldwide.
Although other countries tried to open their schools, Bangladesh didn't do it because it had no workable plan, said Prof Mannan, also a former vice-chancellor of Chittagong University.
Meanwhile, academic life of students has greatly been affected, he observed.
He also said it was very unfortunate that the government had provided funds to different sectors to recover from the pandemic losses, except for the education sector.
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