Educational institutions across country may open in first week of September.

ISLAMABAD: The Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference on Wednesday unanimously declared that the final decision regarding reopening of the educational institutions across the country in September would be taken as per recommendations from National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

Although Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood, who chaired the meeting, did not respond to repeated attempts of the calls and messages by Daily Times but a senior official of the ministry who was part of the meeting disclosed with condition of anonymity that the brass decided to call another IPC meeting for final decision and the recommendations would be forwarded to the NCC that would take some certain sort of decision keeping in view of the death ratio due to the pandemic on that time.

He said that there have been deliberations on some suggestions to open educational institutions from September. However, these are not finally approved. According to the official, it was suggested by some sections that the institutions can be opened under strict implantation of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) in the institutions from the first week of September similarly as the markets or commencement of other activities are allowed by the government.

When contacted education ministry media officer Muhammad Ali Shah said that around 20 points are came under discussion in the meeting. "All details in this regard would be shared by the Shafqat Mehmood at the presser scheduled for today (Thursday).", he claimed.

According to the ministry of education, the decision was taken at the Interprovincial Education Ministers Conference held here with Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood in chair. The meeting was attended by the Federal Secretary Education, Parliamentary Secretary, all provincial education ministers and representatives from Higher Education Commission's (HEC) and regulatory body in Islamabad Capital Territory, Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority's (PEIRA).

Last month, Shafqat Mahmood had hinted at a presser that the government was considering opening schools with implementation of SOPs and suggestions had been sought from the seminaries (Madaris) and private institutions of all provinces, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The...