Zubair Qureshi
Private schools and colleges all over the country have expressed their support to a recent statement of the Federal Minister for Education & Professional Training, Shafqat Mahmood in which the minister had said closing down schools due to coronavirus was out of question.
Malik Abrar Hussain, President of the All Pakistan Private Schools & Colleges Association on Tuesday expressed his unconditional support to the government’s decision saying already precious five months of hundreds and thousands of students have been wasted and hundreds of teachers of private school had lost their jobs due to the closure of their institutes.
If the government once again goes for schools’ closure it will result in irreparable loss to the students’ education, schools’ income and teachers’ financial conditions.
The federal education minister has called an inter-provincial meeting of the education ministers on November 5 (tomorrow) in which a decision is expected over the possible closure or continuation of schools in the wake of increasing number of coronavirus cases that have registered an upward trend with arrival of winter season in the country.
Malik Abrar Hussain however, complimented Shafqat Mahmood who in a tweet shrugged all the rumours of possible schools’ closure in the country.
All the education ministers and stakeholders will sit together (though via video link) and weigh all the options and review the situation of coronavirus in the country and then make a decision in this regard, had said Mahmood in his tweet.
Malik Abrar said in Pakistan more than 40,000 teachers of the private schools and colleges had lost their temporary jobs and were deprived of their source of income during the coronavirus days. Similarly, the education session for the year 2020-21 has also lost 5 precious months and talk of school closures is again causing panic among the schools teaching and non-teaching staff.
Meanwhile, he said all the private educational institutions are following the health guidelines and the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) against coronavirus in letter and spirit and it is the shopping mall and the markets that are causing the spread of coronavirus. The government instead of focusing on schools’ closure should ensure SOP’s compliance in markets and shopping malls, he said.
Meanwhile, Islamabad on Tuesday reported 154 new cases of coronavirus in a period of twenty-four hours after 4054 tests. The positivity rate remained again high i.e. 3.79pc while no death was reported during the last one day.
