Rahima (not her real name), a resident of Fakirganj village in northern Nilphamari district, is a case in point here.
She was a class-seven student when the coronavirus hit Bangladesh last year.
Her rickshaw-van puller father could not afford family expenses, including her online schooling, due to financial hardship during the pandemic.
Rahima was forced to take a job at the nearby Uttara Export Processing Zone this year and her father married her off with a man twice her age.
She quit her schooling as household responsibilities multiplied after her marriage and joining the job.
This hapless Rahima represents thousands of poor families in rural Bangladesh.
An ActionAid Bangladesh study found that 81 per cent of the children are not getting facilities for education at home amid the pandemic for multiple reasons.
According to the study done this April, school closure aside, unavailability of online facilities is also a common factor hindering child education.
Remote learning, online or TV-based education has created a large borderline between children from rich and poor families with no bigger signs of helping millions of students.
An estimated 42-million children have become a casualty of Covid-induced school closure in Bangladesh, leaving them with little option but to rely on remote learning, according to the UNICEF.
Bangladesh is among 19 countries that did not open schools in the pandemic.
Both UNICEF and UNESCO have recently urged these countries to reopen schools, saying: "Schools should be the last to close and the first to reopen."
Rasheda K Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi academic and former adviser to a caretaker government, said a number of countries have introduced blended learning during the pandemic but Bangladesh is still struggling to avail success due to capacity shortage.
"In our study (between November and December 2020), about 50 per cent of students couldn't connect themselves to the blended or online and Sangsad TV schooling due to facility shortage."
The long-standing discrimination in mainstream education has now been multiplied since the pandemic hit the country, the noted educationist told the FE.
"Investment in education is required, education is being deprioritised in terms of investment that is what we are observing. Where education should get a priority, but we see an opposite. We can't continue our economic growth if a generation is lost."
"Thousands of families have become newly poor as the pandemic hits financial activities. Income and food insecurity have become a new challenge for them (poor and new poor) to connect to the alternative blended education in the country," Dr Chowdhury added.
According to a study by a group of global and local NGOs and rights groups, only 48-per cent Bangladeshi students have access to television, 21 per cent to internet or online-based education.
A CAMPE study in 2021 said 69.5-per cent students did not participate in distance learning and 57.9 per cent could not participate because of necessary devices.
Noted educationalist and former UGC chairman Prof Abdul Mannan told the FE that online education is certainly not working for primary schoolers.
He was frustrated witnessing no innovative measure to address the crisis.
"Reopening schools after vaccinating all students and teachers is not a wise decision to make and we can't reopen schools by 2021, if so. We can even reopen schools on a cluster or pilot basis."
Related ministries are not aware properly of the practical schooling condition. They are judging rural, hilly, hoar and char areas through the eyes of city and solvent families, he observed.
"Their (ministries) perception is not representing the truth," Prof Mannan continued.
He emphasised incorporating educationalist, experts in the process to have a better and sustainable solution to the crisis.
Tony Michael Gomes, director of technical programmes at World Vision Bangladesh, questioned education ministry's claim that 93-per cent students countrywide have already submitted assignments asked by schools.
The rising number of smartphone does not indicate that all students are joining online schooling as there is no serious connection between the two, he observes.
"We must provide smart devices to all students having installed online schooling apps on those devices. We should allocate more budget and proper use having consultation with technical experts on education to ensure education for all."
Mr Gomes questioned why all offices, except school, have been allowed during the pandemic, whereas kids have the strongest immune system.
He suggested incorporating private TVs and other forms of media in the process to run online schooling.
Educationalists fear that the pandemic-hit generation would be grown up as half-educated and the country could not cover the loss.
They emphasised increased allocation from the proposed 11.91 per cent to at least 15 per cent as 70 per cent of it goes to teachers and staffers in salaries.
They alleged that there was no incentive for the newly adopted education and for raising the capacity of families, educational institutes and students.
Prof Syed Golam Faruk, director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, also admitted a rich-poor gap existing in online education.
"Yes, we've a reality. We don't have all the capacity in every part of the country like uninterrupted electricity, internet and availability of smart devices for all families," he stated.
"We've already introduced assignment-based learning to address the gap and got a 93-per cent response to it."
Ensuring that every student has a smart device should be a priority. Investing in education is a continuous process and the government is doing what it can do under its capacity, Prof Faruk mentioned.
"The Covid-19 situation is not in favour of reopening schools right now. But we're all prepared to reopen schools anytime the government asks."
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