Dhaka: The government on Sunday decided to reduce the summer vacation in schools and colleges by seven days to make up the academic losses caused by hatral and blockade programmes in recent months, reports UNB.

Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid came up with the decision at a meeting at his ministry on Sunday.

The minister asked the heads of all the schools and colleges to take extra classes for seven days reducing the summer vacation.

Nahid also instructed the authorities of the educational institutions to take extra classes on weekly holidays to recover the loss of time and take 1-2 additional classes each day, if needed.

Academic activities were seriously disrupted in the past three months (January-March) as BNP-Jamaat enforced countrywide blockade and hartal in the name of movement, the minister said.

The nation will have to pay for it in the next 40 years, he said. “We’ll have to minimise the academic losses gradually,” he added.