Education, health ministers meet today to decide opening of schools.

ISLAMABAD -- Country's education and health ministers are set to attend a meeting on Friday to decide about opening of educational institutions from Monday or extend the closure for a few more weeks.

The federal and provincial education and health ministers will attend the meeting of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) which will be chaired by Planning Minister Asad Umar.

Sources said health authorities could recommend delaying the reopening of schools for a few weeks as they consider the ongoing second wave of Covid-19 more lethal than the first one.

The sources said the education ministers want reopening of schools from class 9th to 12 as per the announced schedule from Jan 18.

'At the NCOC meeting, education and health ministers will review the ongoing trend of Covid-19 before announcing their decision. The decision will be taken after reviewing all the aspects. Nothing is final yet all stakeholders will present their view points in meeting,' Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood told Dawn.

He said the government wanted to see the opening of schools as soon as possible but let me made it clear: 'Health is top priority, so we can't make compromise on health of students and teachers. At the same time, we want opening of schools as students have already faced loss of education. So before taking final decision all aspects will be discussed.' On Jan 4, the education ministers on the advice of health experts had announced reopening of educational institutions in phases from Jan 18.

They had decided that in the first phase classes from 9 to 12 will be reopened followed by primary and middle schools from Jan 25 and in the final phase higher educational institutions from Feb 1.

However, the ministers had decided that before reopening a review meeting will be held on Jan 15.

The meeting of the education ministers had also decided to postpone board examinations for class 9th to 12th from...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT