Pakistan to reopen schools in phases from 18th

By News Desk

ISLAMABAD: The federal government announced on Monday phase-wise reopening of educational institutions from January 18, keeping in view “stable Covid-19 situation” in the country.

The announcement was made by Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood along with Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan at a joint press conference after a final decision to this effect was taken at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

The move comes as the country recorded another 39 coronavirus deaths and 1,895 fresh cases in 24 hours leading to Monday with over 6 per cent positivity ratio.

As per the government’s decision, the classes to have board examinations—matriculation and intermediate (9-12) — will resume from January 18. However, schools have been allowed to recommence their primary and high level (1-8) classes on January 25, while all the universities and higher education institutions will resume their classes from February 1.

The education minister also announced that from January 11 after the end of winter vacations, the teachers and administration staff can rejoin their educational institutions to start online classes or administrative work. He said all board exams scheduled for March and April would now be held in May and June. “This step has been taken with the aim to provide an opportunity to students to prepare themselves for exams and make up with course work lapsed due to shutdown.”

Mahmood said the decisions in this regard were taken at the Inter Provincial Education Ministers Conference (IPEMC) in consultation with all other stakeholders.

IPEMC meeting unanimously mulled over time and schedule to open up education sector across the country, he said, adding: “We took opinion from all the provinces and made detailed discussion on the issue.” The minister said children’s health was the top most priority of the incumbent government while mentioning that another health situation review to ensure disease trajectory under control will be taken on January 14-15 before the opening of educational institutions.

Speaking on the occasion, special assistant Dr Sultan said they noted a decline in infection rate after the educational institutions were closed and urged the masses to keep following the safety protocols as announced by the government. “Keeping in view the current data we decided to further delay the reopening of schools,” he added.

Education Minister Mahmood chaired the meeting, which was attended by all the provincial ministers through video link. The final decision regarding the reopening of schools was taken after advice from the health ministry on the matter. It may be mentioned here that the federal government, on the recommendation of the NCOC, had closed all the educational institutions, including madrassahs, from November 26, 2020 to January 10, 2021. Under that plan, schools were to reopen on January 11. However, the rising spread of the novel coronavirus across the country had cast a shadow on that decision with federal and provincial education ministers saying that it was “unlikely” educational institutions would be allowed to reopen.

It may be noted that although education is a provincial matter under the 18th Amendment, the provinces adopted Centre’s policy owing to a Supreme Court decision directing for a uniformed policy to tackle the coronavirus pandemic in the country. However, private schools associations across the country had opposed keeping schools shut for long time.