No winter vacations for Sindh’s educational institutions
There will be no winter vacations for Sindh's educational institutions, despite the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference (IPEMC) announcing on Monday that there will be a winter break from December 25 to January 10.
The Sindh government on Wednesday notified that all educational institutions in Sindh will remain closed for on-campus classes from Thursday (today) till January 10 in line with the National Command and Control Centre's decisions and the IPEMC.
However, the notification added that home-based learning activities would continue without interruption - including that of a winter vacation, which the provincial education department had decided to cancel in September - to cover the loss of academic time earlier this year.
These educational activities are to continue online, through telephone or WhatsApp, or weekly home assignments, which may be collected once a week in person if needed, or via phone or email, depending on what mode of communication individual institutions adopt.
Besides, all public libraries in Sindh are also to remain closed till January 10, according to a notification issued by the Sindh Culture and Tourism Department on the day. Library staff will switch to work from home with 50 per cent of the staff coming in on alternate days from 10am to 4pm, states the notification.
During the IPEMC, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani had objected to school closures, contending that education had suffered already due to prior closures. Instead, he suggested that only those educational institutions should be closed that have an enrolment of 73 per cent at the primary level, while classes six and above should continue.
Prior to the IPEMC, Ghani had acknowledged that the pandemic had had a profound effect on children's education. He had noted that while the number of Covid-19 patients was increasing across the country, pandemic-related standard operating procedures (SOPs), too, are being strictly enforced at educational institutions.
The provincial education department had also expressed the wish to not pause classes for winter break this year.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2020.