Private schools federation flays NCOC decision to extend schools closure

LAHORE: All Pakistan Private Schools Federation (APPSF) President Kashif Mirza has condemned the decision of NCOC to extend the ongoing schools closure, saying that instead of keeping the campuses closed, the government should go for micro lockdowns.

In a statement issued here on Saturday, the APPSF president said that the schools had already faced an irreparable loss to education of 75 million students and it was impossible to make up for the educational losses due to lockdown, especially when 25 million children in Pakistan were out of schools already. He also criticised the government over its failure to fully implement Covid-19 related standard operating procedures (SOPs).

Kashif Mirza demanded vaccination of all schoolchildren and teachers on priority basis despite schools’ closure. He demanded the government provide free laptops, internet facilities along with devices to students. He also rejected the government decision to cancel all examinations till June 15. He said the cancellation of exams would leave a drastic impact on students’ future.

The APPSF president also claimed that different global organisations had advised keeping schools open while citing results of Gallup’s survey according to which 87% of parents want resumption of schools. He said instead of schools’ closure, political gatherings should be banned as the same were a threat to the lives of millions of people. He said that a large number of children, who did not go to school because of closure, were becoming part of child labour. He said the closure was also resulting in economic murder of thousands of teachers and people associated with schools.

He called for reopening of educational institutions to save students’ academic year from wasting, saying shutting down schools was not a solution to the problem. He suggested targeted micro-lockdowns across country to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Kashif Mirza said that the continuous closure of private schools had hurt school owners as almost 10,000 schools across the country had been shut down while around 700,000 teachers have become unemployed. He also demanded the government announce a relief package for teachers.

He said that according to Unicef, the closure of schools during the coronavirus pandemic had proven to be counterproductive, and 40 million children in Pakistan had been affected due to schools’ shutdown.