Educational institutes to stay open across Pakistan except Sindh, exams to be held as per schedule

ISLAMABAD: All educational institutes will stay open across the country except for Sindh, Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said on Wednesday.

Briefing the media after chairing a meeting of provincial education ministers held to take stock of the current Covid-19 situation, the minister said, “It was decided that all educational institutes will remain open across the country except Sindh with 50 per cent attendance.”

Federal education minister said that schools will stay closed in Sindh until August 8 when the provincial government would decide on their reopening after reviewing the coronavirus pandemic situation.

Shafqat Mahmood said the remaining exams will take place as per their schedule. Besides, he added all teachers and students of universities are required to get themselves vaccinated against the virus until August 31.

He said exams will be held on elective subjects only and not for compulsory subjects, adding that 5% more marks will be given to students on compulsory exams, for which physical exams were not held.

Earlier, the Sindh government opposed the idea of reopening schools as Provincial Education Minister Saeed Ghani said educational institutes will remain completely closed until August 08 in the province.

“We will be reviewing the situation after August 08,” he said adding that the COVID situation in the province, especially in Karachi, was alarming.

“The remaining papers of intermediate part-II could only be taken after improvement in the situation,” he said adding that they were in no position to open educational institutes after a recent spike in COVID cases in Karachi and Hyderabad.