Karachi: A small number of private schools in Karachi reopened on Monday violating the lockdown measures still in place in the country to prevent spread of the coronavirus infection.
Closure of educational institutions in Sindh province on February 27 was the initial anti-coronavirus measure that Pakistan took after the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the country a day earlier. Since then the government-run and private schools, colleges and universities have been closed in the province.
See more
The Sindh government announced that it would adhere to the decision of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCoC), which decided to reopen educational institutions in the country from September 15. The NCoC is one of the top-level decision-making forums in Pakistan to steer a consensus nationwide strategy against coronavirus.
The Sindh government said that it was preparing to ensure reopening of educational institutions from September 15 under the countrywide policy. These preparations include adoption of a set of Standard Operating Procedures for safe functioning of educational institutions to safeguard health of students, teachers, and non-teaching staff.
Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani asked the officials concerned to immediately rescind the government’s registration of private schools, which reopened from Monday violating government orders.
He asked the deputy commissioners posted in every district to take stern action against the private schools flouting the lockdown measures of the government.
The provincial education minister said that nobody would be allowed to endanger the lives and health of children.
He said that early reopening of private schools was tantamount to challenging the writ of the government as stern action would be taken against such violators.
Ghani also met Christina Brugiolo, chief of the Sindh chapter of the United Nations Children’s Fund, and informed her that early closure of the educational institutions was a difficult decision for the Sindh government but the time had completely proven the validity of the decision.
UNICEF’s Sindh chief appreciated the timely steps of the Sindh government, including the foremost such decision of the closure of educational institutions to keep people safe from the COVID-19.
Ghani also chaired a separate meeting of senior education officials in Sindh to review arrangements to ensure reopening of educational institutions from September 15.
He said that provincial Education Department would make special efforts to overcome the academic loss of students due to the months-long closure of educational institutions.
The government-run schools and colleges failed to develop and run a proper system of online education during the lockdown period, unlike most of the private schools in the country that used internet-based distance learning.
An Action Committee comprising of school owners said that private schools had been reopened after adoption of precautionary measures.
Financial constraints
It said that reopening of private schools had become necessary to prevent irreparable damage to the education of children during the current academic year.
The school owners of private schools said that reopening of private educational institutions was also necessary for financial viability of these educational institutions as parents had not paid fees for their children regularly since closure of schools around six months back.
Hyder Ali, an office-bearer of one of the associations representing private educational institutions in Sindh, said that private schools mainly in the suburbs of Karachi reopened violating the government orders.
He said that most of the private schools in Karachi would obey the lockdown orders of the government and would reopen from September 2020.
from World,Europe,Asia,India,Pakistan,Philipines,Oceania,Americas,Africa Feed https://ift.tt/2EheZmQ
No comments:
Post a Comment