Online Education Destroys Students' Lives, Says Jamaat Leader Mia Golam Porwar

In a statement released to the media on Thursday, April 2, 2026, Porwar described the decision as "short-sighted" and characterized it as a "deep conspiracy to intellectually impoverish the nation." He argued that shifting back to digital learning under the pretext of an energy crisis would inflict irreparable damage on the country's students and widen the educational divide.

The Jamaat leader’s protest follows a coordination meeting held at the Secretariat on March 31, where the decision was reportedly made to implement three days of online classes for all educational institutions in metropolitan areas, including Dhaka. Porwar asserted that the high cost of internet services would effectively isolate students from low-income families, while increased screen time would escalate the risk of smartphone addiction and moral degradation among the youth. He questioned why the education sector is being specifically targeted for austerity measures while other "luxuries of the state" remain operational and unaffected by the fuel shortage.

To support his stance, Porwar cited the "National Student Assessment 2022" report, which indicated that students failed to achieve desired competencies in Bengali and Mathematics following the pandemic-era school closures. He also referenced UNICEF data suggesting that previous shifts to online learning contributed to higher dropout rates and an increase in child labor. The Secretary General concluded by demanding the immediate withdrawal of this "illogical" decision, urging the government to ensure regular in-person classes for all students to prevent a long-term national crisis in the education sector.