Fourth wave may jeopardise new academic session

Declare schools safe and allow physical classes to resume at 50 pc capacity, demands association of private schools

KARACHI:

After two year of constant complications, fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic has once again left the province’s education system in doldrums right before the start of the new academic session.

Sindh’s schools and colleges, slated for an on-campus reopening on August 02, 2021, are now mulling a change of plan owing to the surge in virus cases.

While a final decision is yet to be made in the regard, parents, children and school administrations all appear to be wary of another online term, which has proven to be full of loose ends and difficulties in the past two years.

“I keep paying for online classes, but my child has failed to develop the kind of ability that a child of his age should have,” claimed father of fourth-grader admitted to a private school.

Similarly, Suraya Khatun, another parent disappointed by the virtual-education system, said that she doesn’t understand how malls and markets can remain open during the pandemic, but schools cannot operate under SOPs. “Shopping can be done online, but education cannot,” she rejoined.

On the other hand, the Grand Alliance of Private Schools Associations, a provincial network of private school associations, recently met Sindh Private Institutions Director General Mansoob Siddiqui in his office and presented its charter of demands to the Sindh Department of School Education.

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The delegation, led by association leaders Tariq Shah, Fahim Alzaman and others, sought that schools be allowed to reopen on August 02 at the start of the new academic session with 50 per cent attendance. “Schools should be declared safe as the implementation of SOPs in educational institutions is being ensured and staff vaccination has been completed,” the association heads maintained.

Under the decision of the provincial task force, educational institutions across Sindh are closed till July 31. The decision to close educational institutions, including schools and universities, came on the eve of Eidul Azha.

At the time, in addition to the increase in Covid-19 cases, the Indian-origin delta variant of the virus was also reported to be transmitting an unprecedented rate. However, private and public schools were already closed for summer vacations and the closure notification for schools from class I to VIII was issued on July 14.

However, mid-July, when educational institutions were being closed, more than 11,000 tests were being conducted in the province daily; reporting more than 1,200 positive cases, out of which over 1,000 cases were being traced to Karachi alone.

At present, more than 18,000 tests are being conducted daily with over 2,300 positive cases being reported across Sindh. Out of this figure, about 800 cases are from Karachi while the positivity ratio in the city has now crossed 26 per cent.

Conveying the stance of the Department of School Education under current circumstances, Secretary Ahmed Bakhsh Narejo maintained that all decisions pertaining to the reopening of schools is to be taken at a meeting of the provincial task force. “We will review the matter before the new session and decide soon at the steering committee or some other forum,” he said responding to a question regarding extension of school holidays in consideration of current conditions.

Per details, the Inter-provincial Education Ministers’ Conference is due to take place on Wednesday July 28, during which a decision regarding the fate of the new academic session is expected to be reached.

Looking back

It may however be noted that during the last academic year of 2020, a majority of classes were conducted online, with only short bouts of on-campus classes between lockdowns. The session that began online in August, gradually transitioned to on-campus classes in second week of September before eventually being closed again on November 26, with the advent of the second viral wave. Schools then reopened on February 1, 2021 but had to once again be closed down after barely two months of physical classes owing to the third spell of Covid-19. Subsequently, the schools were incrementally reopened between June 15 and June 22, only to closed once again from July 16.

Thus, during the last academic year, schools only operated physically for a total of five-and-a-half months. But owing to the 50 per cent attendance policy, on average, students spent barely 2.5 months taking physical classes last year, while virtual education remained the norm for the rest of the 2020-2021 academic calendar.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2021.