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News

Sindh delays reopening middle schools amid Covid-19 spread

September 18, 2020 04:56 PM


The Sindh government on Friday postponed the decision to reopen the middle schools – from Grade 6 to Grade 8 – from September 21 as announced earlier after the recent spike in coronavirus cases.

Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Education Minister Saeed Ghani said the decision had taken as the parents were worried about the increase in the infection rate. The government wanted to protect the children, he added.

However, he added that the second of phase reopening of educational institutions might be implemented from the 28th of the current month in case the situation improved.

It means the primary schools – covering classes from nursery to Grade V – could also be delayed as these were supposed to open on September 28.

The provincial government took this decision as Pakistan is witnessing an increase in coronavirus infection rate in recent days. That’s why 752 new cases were reported during the past 24 hours (Thursday).

During the morning and afternoon, Ghani again visited several educational institutions, especially schools, and noted that many were not following the SOPs defined by the government. 

Earlier on Thursday, the official data had revealed that the virus was found in 545 people.

In this scenario, the authorities shut down another 13 educational institutions in the country – Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 10 and Sindh three – for not following the SOPs that led to the emergence of coronavirus cases.

These institutions were closed in addition to the 22 which had been shut down on the previous two days. 

On June 14, the daily count had reached its maximum since the pandemic outbreak in the country when 6,825 people were diagnosed with the deadly virus. However, the trend was later reversed.

After 213 new cases reported officially on August 30 which marked the lowest daily count in Pakistan since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, the country has been witnessing a gradual rise in infection rate. 

But there has been a spike in new cases especially after the educational institutions were reopened in the country on September 15 after an over six-month-long break.

Meanwhile, Thursday also saw nine more people dying of the virus which raised the death toll to 6,408. 

Earlier on Tuesday (September 15), hundreds of thousands of universities, colleges, schools and madrasas reopened throughout Pakistan, ending an over six-month-long closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The authorities have planned to resume educational activities in phases, 187 days after suspending them. As such, universities, colleges, schools (Class IX and X only) and madrasas reopened on September 15 officially.

The students from class VI to VIII will resume their studies from September 23 while the primary schools are supposed to reopen on September 30.



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