Photo: Collected
The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) has issued four urgent directives to ensure dengue prevention and cleanliness at educational institutions. The directives came even though all educational institutions in the country are now closed for the Sharadiya Durga Puja holidays.
The directives were given to heads of educational institutions in a notice published on the DSHE website on Tuesday. The notice was signed by DSHE Director (College and Administration) Professor Md Nazmul Haque.
The notice said that, as part of visits to various hospitals, educational institutions and residential areas of government officials and employees in Dhaka city, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman recently made a sudden tour of several establishments, including Rajuk Uttara Model College, Mirpur Cantonment Public School and College and Mirpur Bangla College. In this situation, the heads of all educational institutions, including those in Dhaka city, have been requested, as directed, to take the necessary steps to ensure the overall environment, cleanliness and discipline of their respective institutions.
1) The classrooms, office rooms, verandas, roofs, toilets, courtyards and surrounding areas of the institution must be kept clean on a regular basis.
2) It must be checked whether water has accumulated anywhere and it must be removed immediately, and effective measures must be taken to prevent dengue by destroying mosquito breeding grounds.
3) Awareness activities to prevent dengue must be conducted with the involvement of teachers, students and employees.
4) The overall discipline, a healthy environment and the necessary administrative preparations of the institution must be ensured.
The notice carrying these directives for the heads of all educational institutions in the country also described the matter as ‘extremely urgent’.
Background
According to Directorate General of Health Services data, 331 people have died of dengue and 107,259 have been admitted to hospital until 15 October this year – Jugantor reported this on 15 October.
Such directives centred on educational institutions are not the first of their kind. On 8 July, Dhaka Deputy Commissioner Farida Khanam directed all educational institutions in the district to form a ‘clean school team’ within five working days; that team was to include the head of the institution, a guardian representative, the ward sanitary inspector, two students and a teacher as member secretary – BSS reported this on 8 July.
The numbers
According to Directorate General of Health Services figures, September was the worst month of this year – 43,774 people were admitted and 148 died in that single month – bdnews24.com reported this on 6 October.
The tally for the year until 31 August was far lower, with 97 deaths and 35,846 admissions – the same news outlet gave this information on 31 August.
In 2025, 413 people died of dengue over the whole year and 102,861 were infected – Dhaka Tribune reported this on 19 September 2026. The highest outbreak was in 2023, when 321,179 people were admitted and 1,705 died – this information is in bdnews24.com’s 6 October report.
