Govt announced reopening of schools step by step from Jan 18
The country’s education ministers, in a meeting on Monday, decided to reopen educational institutions in the country in phases from January 18.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad after the meeting; Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said that in the first phase; classes nine to 12 would be allowed to resume from Jan 18.
He said that in the next phase, classes one to eight would resume on Jan 25. All higher educational institutions would resume from Feb 1, he added.
Schedule of reopening:
Jan 18: Classes 9 to 12 to resume
Jan 25: Classes 1 to 8 to resume
Feb 1: Higher educational institutions to resume
The education minister said that teachers and administrative staff would be allowed to come back to schools from Jan 11 after the winter vacations were over. Online learning can also be resumed from Jan 11, he said.
Inter provincial Education Ministers meeting held today. Health situation was carefully considered and it was decided that classes appearing for Board and Cambridge exam that is 9,10,11,12, O and A level, will reopen on Jan 18. Classes pre school to 8 will reopen on Jan 25. 1/2
— Shafqat Mahmood (@Shafqat_Mahmood) January 4, 2021
2/2 All higher education institutions/ universities will reopen on Feb 1. However online classes will start for them on Jan 11. Similarly all schools will reopen in January 11 for Administrators and teachers to prepare for arrival of students.
— Shafqat Mahmood (@Shafqat_Mahmood) January 4, 2021
Elaborating on the decisions taken during the meeting, Mahmood said that board exams which were due to be held in March and April were postponed to May and June because “the children have not completed their coursework and we want to give them time [to prepare].”
He added that the government would review the health situation again on Jan 14 or 15 to “see if the trajectory is under control”.
“Let me emphasize that this year nobody will be promoted without exams,” the minister said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan, who addressed the press conference before Mahmood, cautioned that more precautions were needed to control the spread of Covid-19.
“When we looked at data and analyzed it, it became clear that we need to take some more precautions and delay [reopening] so that the second wave can be reduced before we reopen,” he said.
He said that data showed that closing the educational institutions earlier had led to a “delay in [the spread of] the virus”.
Punjab Minister for School Education Dr. Murad Raas in a tweet said that classes in the province would resume according to the schedule announced by Mahmood.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Opening of Educational Institutions in Punjab.
Classes 9,10,11,12 to open on January 18th 2021. Classes ECE through 8th to open on January 25th, 2021. Universities to open on February 1st, 2021. All institutions will have 50% students on alternate days as before.— Murad Raas (@DrMuradPTI) January 4, 2021
“All institutions will have 50% students on alternate days as before,” he added.
In a separate press conference, Raas termed the 50 percent attendance policy “the most important thing”, saying that schools were being opened “not because the coronavirus situation [had improved] but because the children were incurring huge educational losses”.
Responding to a question, he said that board exams would be held in June. Work would be started on deciding examination centers from now, he added.
Talking about the promotion of students to higher classes; he said that 50pc of their assignments would count towards determining their final grades.” Children will not be promoted without exams,” he said.
Educational institutions saw months-long closure in 2020 due to Covid-19. They were closed in March and then reopened in September only to be shut down again the next month due to the constant rise in coronavirus cases.
