Federal Education Minister important statement over shutting down schools on Coronavirus spread

Federal Education Minister important statement over shutting down schools on Coronavirus spread

ISLAMABAD: Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said on Saturday that the health of students is the government’s top priority.

Taking to Twitter today, he said: “Any decision we make will be guided by the advice of Health Ministry. Having said that 6 months closure deeply affected the students.”

Read More: ‘Second phase to reopen schools postponed by Sindh govt’ link

Shafqat Mahmood said the decision to reopen educational institutions across the country was taken with “great care”. “Any hasty decision to close [them] will destroy education,” he cautioned.

On Sept 18, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani announced link that the government was delaying resumption of academic sessions of classes 6 to 8 in schools across the province due to negligence seen in many educational institutions in the implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) against coronavirus pandemic.

Classes six to eight were supposed to resume sessions from Sept 21, a week after the resumption of on-campus classes for the higher grades on September 15.

Read More: No change of plan in phase-wise reopening of schools yet: Shafqat Mahmood link

In a statement the previous day, Shafqat Mahmood had denied any change in plan over the phase-wise reopening of the schools across the country and said that a meeting would be held on September 22 before the resumption of other classes of schools in the second phase.

“Our timetable is not yet changed,” said Shafqat Mahmood adding that they had decided unanimously over the resumption of academic activities in educational institutes in early September.