Educational institutions closing down from 26th

ISLAMABAD: Clearing up the confusion about winter break for students, the federal and provincial governments on Monday finally reached a consensus on closing the educational institutions for in-person learning to stem the surging coronavirus incidence.

“After examining the record spike in COVID-19 cases and fears of the virus spread, we [education ministers] have agreed on the suspension of in-person classes and start of virtual learning in universities, colleges, schools, seminaries and tuition centres from November 26 to December 24. All educational institutions will stay closed from December 15 to January 10 on account of winter vacation and resume classes on January 11,” Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood told a presser here after chairing a virtual meeting of the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers’ Conference.

Since the start of the second coronavirus wave lately, both the Centre and provinces had been uncertain whether to announce the routine winter vacation or not in the light of the student learning loss caused by the pandemic-induced campus closures in the last summer season.

The NCOC, the nerve centre for the country’s fight against COVID-19, has already recommended early and prolonged winter vacationin the educational institutions saying students and their teachers have emerged as one of the major spreaders of coronavirus in the country. More and more schools and colleges are being closed after the detection of virus.

He said homework would be given out to students online and if that wasn’t possible, the provinces would decide about the course of action by themselves but all efforts would be made to ensure that education continued from home.

“We will review the COVID-19 incidence in the first week of January and decide about the schools reopening accordingly. God willing, educational institutions will reopen on January 11,” he said.

Shafqat Mehmood said all examinations scheduled for December had been postponed until January 15 but some professional exams would be held as scheduled earlier. He said the universities would begin online learning, while their hostels would be allowed to house students up to one third of their capacity.

The minister said educational institutions would decide if teachers needed to show up on campus or stay home to take classes. “We have recommended that board exams that were scheduled for March or April be pushed forward until May and June. This is because when educational institutions will reopen, students get time to complete their coursework. Also, there is a recommendation to postpone the new academic year, which begins in April in government schools, until August after the reduction of the next summer vacation,” he said.

The minister said all those recommendations would go to the NCOC for a decision. Meanwhile, the private schools and colleges have opposed more campus closures and insisted that COVID-19 was spreading due to the violation of government guidelines in markets, large functions, parks and other public places.

They claimed that they’re strictly enforcing SOPs on their premises for coronavirus prevention and control, so their closures were unjustified and would hit them and their employees really hard especially when they’re still reeling from the huge losses caused by the six-month-long summer shutdown.