Covid cases rise at K-P educational institutions

Despite the Omicron variant’s highly contagious nature, residents of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) have not subscribed to the threat it poses resultantly the infections are picking up pace - most notably in schools.

According to the K-P Health Department the coronavirus positivity rate at educational institutions has risen to a troubling 13%. Furthermore, the provincial health department has closed around 53 schools, colleges, and universities in Mardan district while around 50 educational institutions in Peshawar for ten days after multiple reports of students contracting the virus.

The high positivity rate has troubled parents and students alike with their concerns being health related and the quality of education being compromised due to online schooling. Shahnawaz Khan, whose three kids study in a private school while talking to The Express Tribune, said that on one hand the government was telling people to follow safety precautions and on the other keeping educational institutions open.

 “It is a risk for the children as well as for the parents because they can get infected at school and then bring it home,” he said. Shahnawaz suggested that the government should shut all schools for a few days to curb the spread of the coronavirus but conceded that it might not be possible because schools were not equipped to teach students online. Haris Khan, a student at the Agriculture University, Peshawar, had similar concerns, stating that while he was worried about his health, he had no faith in online education. “This is an immense problem for all students that we cannot take classes from home even when the virus is spreading rapidly just because schools cannot teach online,” he lamented.

While the reliance on technology to teach might be low, it could further aid the rise in infections as the upsurge in Covid-19 has resulted in more than 207,000 confirmed cases and a positivity rate of 9.8% across the province.

Another parent, Jawad Khan, expressed his disappointment that he had to put his children in harm’s way given the high provincial positivity rate just because educational institutions had not figured out how to teach students online.

Jawad was of the view that the coronavirus was here to stay so schools should learn to adapt accordingly. Director Elementary and Secondary Education, Hafiz Muhammad Ibrahim, when inquired about school closures said that the education department follows the instruction of National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) and they still had not issues any guidelines to school educational institutes. Commenting on the lack of an online schooling model, Ibrahim said that the student’s academic career has already been affected by the superspreader and with final exams on the horizon they could not hinder student’s education any further.

“We have already sent instructions to all educational institutions to follow all safety precautions and have closed down some institutes where there were reports of Covid-19 cases,” Ibrahim informed The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2022.