KARACHI: Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani clarified that schools across the province will not be opening from Monday.
His statement comes hours after Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah announced to open schools after vaccinating all teachers.
In an earlier meeting, the National Command and Operations Centre also issued instructions to keep all educational institutions in Sindh closed until June 7.
Ghani said schools will remain closed until further orders, adding that the steering committee will hold a meeting within the next few days to decide on the matter.
“The meeting will take into consideration the coronavirus situation in the province and will decide whether or not educational institutions should be reopened,” he said.
He announced that the steering committee will also finalise the examination schedule.
Last week, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho said the provincial government will not reopen schools until it was certain that coronavirus cases in the province were on a decline.
“Schools will remain closed until we (the Sindh government) are certain that the numbers (of coronavirus cases) are decreasing and won’t increase,” she had said.
Pechuho had said that despite the efforts of the government, people are still hesitant to get themselves vaccinated.
The health minister had also said Sindh would ease restriction once people start getting themselves inoculated but said that the positivity ratio in Karachi was still high.
Seperately, Murad also said to relax Covid-19 restrictions.
Speaking to reporters after inaugurating Covid vaccination at Expo Centre, he said that the provincial task force on coronavirus will meet later today to discuss the relaxing of restrictions.
He further said the pandemic was far from over, urging the people to continue strict adherence to the health guidelines.
“The Covid-19 death ratio is lower and recovery rate is higher in Sindh,” he observed.
He said that the provincial government is vaccinating 100,000 people a day and was planning to double the number. Hailing the services of the frontline healthcare workers, he said as many as 90 percent of the workers have been vaccinated.
“The salaries of government employees will be blocked if they refuse vaccine jabs,” he reiterated.
He also urged the corporate community to get themselves vaccinated and follow guidelines to contain the spread.
Murad said he has written a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan complaining that the federal government has ignored uplift projects for Sindh.
“We want to see Punjab, KP and Balouchistan prosper, but not at the cost of Sindh,” he said.
SCHOOLS IN ISLAMABAD REOPEN:
Meanwhile, students in grades 1-8 will return to schools in Islamabad from Monday as the government approved the resumption of in-person classes.
The schools are already conducting in-person classes for grades 9-10.
The decision came after the NCOC approved physical classes, after witnessing a decline in new coronavirus cases.
In a notification, the Federal Directorate of Education, which oversees public sector schools and colleges in Islamabad, said the exam schedule for grades 1-8 would be announced soon.
UNIVERSITIES IN KP REOPEN:
Higher education institutions across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will resume in-person academic sessions from Monday.
The provincial higher education department has issued a notification to reopen all public and private sector universities under strict compliance with standard operating procedures notified by the NCOC.
Similarly, elementary and secondary education departments have also issued notifications to reopen educational institutions in 30 districts, announcing to keep the remaining institutions closed until their contagion rate comes down to 5 percent.
