Schoolchildren across Bangladesh are set to enjoy a nine-day break in October as the scheduled Durga Puja holiday coincides with the weekly Friday-Saturday holidays.
According to the revised 2026 academic holiday calendar issued by the Secondary and Higher Education Division of the Ministry of Education, government and non-government secondary and lower-secondary schools across the country will remain closed from Sunday, 18 October, to Thursday, 22 October, for the Durga Puja celebrations.
Although the official Puja holiday runs for five days, students will effectively get a much longer break because of the weekly holidays immediately before and after it.
Friday, 16 October, and Saturday, 17 October, are already weekly holidays. As a result, students will finish their classes on Thursday, 15 October, before beginning the extended break.
The holiday period will continue through the following weekend. Friday, 23 October, and Saturday, 24 October, are also weekly holidays. Schools are therefore scheduled to resume regular academic activities on Sunday, 25 October.
This means students will remain away from classrooms continuously from Friday, 16 October, through Saturday, 24 October — a total of nine consecutive days.
The arrangement creates a longer break without any alteration to the five-day Durga Puja holiday itself. The additional days come from the placement of the weekly holidays around the festival period.
For students and families, the schedule provides a clear uninterrupted break in the middle of the academic year. Schools, meanwhile, are expected to resume their normal timetable from 25 October, in line with the revised holiday calendar.
The sequence of dates is as follows:
- Thursday, 15 October: Classes end before the extended break.
- Friday, 16 October: Weekly holiday.
- Saturday, 17 October: Weekly holiday.
- Sunday, 18 October: Durga Puja holiday.
- Monday, 19 October: Durga Puja holiday.
- Tuesday, 20 October: Durga Puja holiday.
- Wednesday, 21 October: Durga Puja holiday.
- Thursday, 22 October: Durga Puja holiday.
- Friday, 23 October: Weekly holiday.
- Saturday, 24 October: Weekly holiday.
- Sunday, 25 October: Schools are scheduled to reopen.
Durga Puja is one of the major religious festivals observed in Bangladesh, and schools traditionally include a designated holiday period around the festival in their annual academic calendar. The 2026 revised calendar retains the scheduled dates for the festival holiday.
With the weekly holidays falling directly before and after the five-day Puja break, students will consequently have nine uninterrupted days away from school. For those attending government and non-government secondary and lower-secondary institutions, the break will begin after classes on 15 October and continue until the end of 24 October.
Regular classes are expected to resume on Sunday, 25 October, bringing the extended festival break to an end.
