Ghani underlines need to keep schools closed amid epidemic scare

Says govt is working on a plan for holding matric exams on time

KARACHI: Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani, while acknowledging that students had been facing problems due to the closure of schools amid fear of coronavirus spread, said on Friday, "We cannot pave the way for a bigger problem in order to resolve a smaller one."

Talking to the media outside the Supreme Court's Karachi registry, Ghani said that coronavirus was a global issue and numerous other countries too had closed schools, besides imposing a ban on public gatherings, to deal with the situation and prevent an outbreak.

"We [too] have closed the schools as a precautionary measure to protect children against the disease," he said.

The education minister confirmed that the Board of Secondary Education Karachi had issued a notification for the schools to collect students' admit cards for matriculation examination, saying that the government was trying to work out a plan for holding the exams on time.

He also called on the media to raise awareness about coronavirus among people so that they may not be misguided by misinformation and rumours circulating on social media. He further said that the government too had initiated an action against those responsible for spreading the rumours.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2020.