Pakistan Education Ministers and Health Officials Meet to Decide Reopening of Educational Institutions from September 15, 2020
Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood chaired meeting of Provincial Education Ministers to take final verdict on reopening of educational institutions from September 15, 2020 across Pakistan. The meeting included HEC’s Chairperson, Executive Director, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan as well as officials from health department were present at Inter Provincial Education Ministers Conference – IPEMC in order to compile the final recommendations for educational institutions reopening. The recommendations compiled in this meeting shall be forwarded to National Command and Operation Center – NCOC for further deliberations among respective stakeholders.
The meeting agenda also included to finalize standard operating procedures – SOPs for educational institutions open reopening, since educational institutions throughout the country are shut from March 13, 2020 in the light of spread of coronavirus.
The Education Minister for Sindh Saeed Ghani said all institutions were to be open between September 15 to September 30 in Sindh. All classes from 9th grade to up and universities will resume from September 15th whereas grade 6 to grade 8 with resume academic session from September 22nd and the primary and preschool classes shall be reopened from September 30th, 2020. The provincial minister also pledged that institutions in areas that will show spike in Covid-19 cases would be shut until further notice. Wearing facemasks is mandatory in educational institutions and strict action would be taken if SOPs violation is found in institutions.
The Provincial Education Minister for Punjab, Dr. Murad Raas said there would be no double shifts and all public, private schools must have to follow alternative day schedule shared on his twitter account.
The provincial education department of KPK has decided to conduct coronary tests on school staff and students. “Health Department’s teams will be visiting public and private educational institutions to conduct random tests of teachers / staff / students / canteen vendors and all those individuals working within the institute premises in an effort to detect Covid-19 positive cases and prevent the spread of disease,” a notification shared on the Twitter account of the ruling PTI’s KP chapter stated.