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 9^th grade to up and universities will resume from September 15^th whereas grade 6 to grade 8 with resume academic session from September 22^nd and the primary and preschool classes shall be reopened from September 30^th, 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.

The NCOC suggested that all educational institutes in the country be reopened with a top-to-bottom approach i.e. universities first, then colleges, high schools, and so on. The statement released by NCOC after 27^th August’s meeting, it was stated that timings of institutions to be reduced as well as mass gathering including co-curricular activities to be suspended.  The educational sector representatives were informed that the NCOC’s suggestions had been finalized after hectic and lengthy consultations with international experts, academia, and think tanks, particularly those who had been working on the reopening of the educational sector.

The health aide of Prime Minister, Dr. Sultan told participants that while eventual opening would be done for educational institutions, the NCOC and the health ministry would closely monitor respective stats on daily basis regarding spread of disease.