Education ministers oppose opening schools on June 1.

Byline: Kashif Abbasi

ISLAMABAD -- Federal and provincialeducation ministers on Wednesday recommended extending the closure of educational institutions beyond May 31 in view of the surge in Covid-19 cases across the country.

They said that opening educational institutions on June 1 could lead to coronavirus spreading among students.

The interprovincial education ministers online video conference chaired by Minister for Federal Education Shafqat Mahmood discussed the opening of educational institutions on June 1.

The meeting, however, referred the matter to the National Coordination Committee (NCC), which will take it up today (Thursday).

'Today, we discussed various proposals regarding the opening of institutions. The majority of the participants were of the view that the closure should be extended. Now the final decision will be taken up by NCC on Thursday,' Mr Mahmood told Dawn.

National Coordination Committee will take up the matter today

He said participants of the meeting also hailed the outcome of the Tele School project. The minister said efforts are afoot to make the Tele School, which was initially a three month project- a regular feature to bring improvementsto the education sector.

Mr Mahmood said his ministry was also planning to launch a regional channel at a later stage to promote education in regional languages.

'Through technology we can overcome the challenge of out-of-school children and we can also improve the national literacy rate,' he said.

The online meeting of ministers was also attended by the education secretary and other senior ministry officers.

Sources said that other than Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, provincial ministers strongly recommendedthat educational institutions remain closed until the situation normalises.

The ministers said Covid-19 could spread...

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