Educational institutions to be opened by Sept. 15 under strict SOPs: Shafqat Mahmood.

ISLAMABAD -- Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood Thursday said that the educational institutions in the country would be opened formally from September 15 under strict Standard of Opening Procedures (SOPs).

Addressing a press conference here after taking final decision in the National Command and Control Centre (NCOC) he said the government would review the health indicators in first and third week of August and before opening of educational institutions, the final meeting to review the current COVID-19 situation will be held in first week of September.

If the coronavirus pandemic situation was not improving then the educational institutions would not be opened from September 15, he mentioned.

He said that all decisions to this affect were taken unanimously in the Inter Provincial Education Ministers Conference(IPEMC) in consultation with the all stakeholders.

He said that the educational institutions including madaris, public and private sector schools, colleges and universities would be opened from September 15 under strict Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

The provinces had given different suggestions regarding formulation of SOPs and they were asked to send their written SOPs to the education ministry that will be finalized with consultation.

While giving briefing about the decisions taken in IPEMC meeting for opening of educational institutions, Shafqat said that universities, colleges and schools were being given permission to open their administration offices for necessary work and provision of training to their teachers regarding implementation on SOPs.

The Federal Government had given permission to provinces for opening of educational institutions under SOPs and now the final decisions will be taken by the educational institutions in consultation with the provincial governments, he added.

The Education Minister further said that the universities had been given permission to allow their PhD level students or those who wanted to do their research work in laboratories, can attend universities physically before 15th of September.

"The universities have been granted permission to allow the students of far-flung areas to attend their universities. Such students will live in hostels and their number should not exceed to 30 percent as a precautions.

The aim of this step was to mitigate the loss of students of remote areas in education during COVID-19 as they were unable to join online classes due to...