Hasty decision to shut schools will destroy education: Shafqat Mahmood

ISLAMABAD: Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said on Saturday that the health of students is the government’s top priority.

Taking to Twitter today, he said: “Any decision we make will be guided by the advice of Health Ministry. Having said that 6 months closure deeply affected the students.”

Shafqat Mahmood said the decision to reopen educational institutions across the country was taken with “great care”. “Any hasty decision to close [them] will destroy education,” he cautioned.

Health of students is our first priority and any decision we make will be guided by the advice of Health Ministry. Having said that 6 months closure deeply affected the students. Decision to open was taken with great care. Any hasty decision to close will destroy education

— Shafqat Mahmood (@Shafqat_Mahmood) September 19, 2020

On Sept 18, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani announced that the government was delaying resumption of academic sessions of classes 6 to 8 in schools across the province due to negligence seen in many educational institutions in the implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) against coronavirus pandemic.

Classes six to eight were supposed to resume sessions from Sept 21, a week after the resumption of on-campus classes for the higher grades on September 15.

In a statement the previous day, Shafqat Mahmood had denied any change in plan over the phase-wise reopening of the schools across the country and said that a meeting would be held on September 22 before the resumption of other classes of schools in the second phase.

“Our timetable is not yet changed,” said Shafqat Mahmood adding that they had decided unanimously over the resumption of academic activities in educational institutes in early September.

'Hasty' decision to shut schools will destroy education: Shafqat Mahmood