Only 50pc students allowed to attend classes at a time, says Ghani.

KARACHI -- Sindh Minister for Education and Labour Saeed Ghani has said that as per the standard operating procedures (SOPs) educational institutions in the province are still bound to call only 50 per cent of students in Sindh as the Covid-19 pandemic is still very much there. He was speaking at a press conference called by him at his camp office on Sunday.

'On one hand, the Federal Minister for Education is announcing that there is to be 100 per cent attendance in educational institutions from March 1 and, on the other, he is also asking for the implementation of SOPs. It is not possible to call 100 per cent students,' he said.

He said that in the last meeting of the steering committee of the Sindh education department, it was decided that both public and private educational institutions across the province would be opened with full SOPs. It was also decided then that educational institutions would call only 50 per cent of students and those schools which have extra classrooms would divide the class into two portions.

Questions federal minister's announcement of 100pc attendance from March 1

'How to maintain distance among the students when the classroom is full seems beyond the comprehension of the federal minister for education. But we have to take care of these things,' he said. 'The number of Covid-19 cases have definitely come down in the province, thank God, but we still cannot ignore the fact that there is a pandemic that has not been completely eradicated and until that happens, educational institutions here will continue to follow SOPs and call 50 per cent students to classes,' he said.

Saeed Ghani also said that there is a shortage of teachers in Sindh for which they have advertised. 'There are 37,000 vacant posts for teachers in the province,' he said, adding that the cabinet had approved recruitment of teachers for which they have also signed an MoU with IBA Sukkur. The recruitment will be for primary school teachers (PST) and junior school teachers (JST).

'This time the...