Shafqat Mahmood says educational establishments will reopen from Sept.15 if health standards are improving
Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood declared on Thursday that from September 15 all educational institutions, including universities, would reopen.
The minister said the government would reconsider its decision on tracking the coronavirus situation in the country in the first week of September by having a look at the health indicators and can change the situation if need arises.
“Before September 15 we require universities to call doctoral students, who are very small in number, to their research laboratories,” he said. “We are leaving it up to him as to how they manage it.”
He said the government also allowed universities to accept students to 30 per cent potential in hostels. He added, though, the ‘safety inspections’ the involved examinations and temperature regulation should be carried out exclusively by universities.
Mahmood said educational institutions could call teachers and workers in administration to duty before September 15. He said regions will be in need of ensuring observed SOPs.
“In fact, it’s my suggestion to private schools that the SOPs you’ll have to adopt should be the ones the government makes,” he added. following five months of suspension, Center and provinces decided to reopen classes, colleges and universities in the first week of September.
The final decision on this, however, was to be reached by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), which tracks and acts on innovations to curb coronavirus spread in the region.
The federal and provincial ministers met via video connection in Islamabad to address plans for the reopening of educational institutions.
Also attending the meeting were members of the departments of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir Education, which was chaired by federal education minister Shafqat Mehmood.
The participants decided that hospitals, colleges and universities in the first week of September would be permitted to restart activities around the nation in tight implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) to deter coronavirus dissemination.