Govt mulls reopening educational institutes in phases from Jan 25

Final decision on reopening institutes and finalising schedule of examinations to be taken in Monday meeting

KARACHI:

The federal government is contemplating to reopen educational institutions across the country in three phases beginning from January 25, The Express Tribune learnt on Friday. However, a final decision in this regard will be taken next week.

To deliberate over the matter, the federal ministry of education has scheduled an inter-provincial conference on Monday to be attended by all provincial education ministers.

The conference — to be chaired by Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood — will decide on phase-wise reopening of educational institutions as well as finalising the schedule of examinations for the academic year 2020-21.

According to the agenda of the conference acquired by The Express Tribune, the decision on reopening of educational institutions will be taken on the basis of health advisory keeping in view the prevailing coronavirus situation across the country.

In this connection, it has been suggested that in the first phase, primary schools in both public and private sector should be reopened from January 25, 2021, while in the second phase, middle and secondary schools should be reopened from February 4.

Moreover, secondary and equivalent educational institutions were proposed to be reopened in the third phase. However, a specified date was not mentioned.

Confirming the development to The Express Tribune, an official from the education ministry maintained that the government was considering the proposal to reopen primary schools first as according to the data received from National Command Operation Centre (NCOC), young children in the country were less likely to get infected from Covid-19 as compared to other age groups.

However, he added, the decision on the phase-wise reopening of educational institutions and the dates will depend on the pandemic situation. "If the situation continues to deteriorate, the proposals may be deferred and another inter-provincial ministerial conference on education may be held on January 19," the official added.

"Any decision will be made keeping in view the trend and the number of patients in hospitals and the current pressure on the health system of the country," the source said.

According to the agenda of the meeting, it was also proposed to conduct examinations for various classes at the level of schools and boards by the end of May or the beginning of June so that the course are completed well-before examinations.

Similarly, another proposal suggested that the duration of summer vacations be reduced and the new academic year should start from August 2021.

It should be noted that after remaining open for about two-and-a-half-month, the educational institutions across the country were closed again on November 26, 2020.

The government had announced that all educational institutions will remain closed till January 10 and will resume their academic activities from January 11.

Earlier this year after the emergence of coronavirus epidemic in the country, academic activities in all educational institutions were suspended till September 15 after closing in March 2020.