Venkatesh Iyer
NEW DELHI, Sep 8: With the Corona pandemic in check, the educational institutions in Pakistan will start re-opening in phases from September 15, the Pakistan education minister Shafqat Mehmood announced on Monday.
He was addressing the media after the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference (IPEMC) in Islamabad. Schools and Colleges in Pakistan were closed on March 13 in the wake of Corona outbreak.
Mehmood said the educational institutions would be re-opened in three phases with the students from standard 9 to 12 attending schools from September 15, followed by students in classes from six to eight on September 23 and the primary sections a week later from September 30.
He said the government would continue to review the safety situations closely and action would be initiated if any educational institution found lacking in adhering to the standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Mehmood said the decision to re-open schools was based on a study carried out by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) followed by an extensive consultative process involving expert panels while the government checked both regional and international trends before arriving at this decision, he added. He also sought the co-operation of parents, teachers and administrators and said everyone required to play their part properly for successful implementation of the re-opening decision.
Dr Faisal Sultan, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was also present at the media conference, pointed out the extensive debate in Pakistan and in other countries over the right arrangement for re-opening the educational institutions. He said for the colleges and universities, Pakistan, like most other countries, could follow the norm of dividing students in groups and hold the classes in shifts or alternate days to keep the number of students present at check.
A day earlier, Mehmood while speaking to a private television channel had also given a broad outline of the education system Pakistan intending to follow. He had indicated that the government was planning to implement a standardized system of education across the country. He had also hinted that the main medium of education in Pakistan would be its national language-Urdu-with English taught as a subject from standard one to four.
He had also announced the government’s decision to provide technical skills to students in the 10th standard and train the teachers with modern teaching skills.