Murtaza Wahab urges government to reconsider reopening of schools

KARACHI: Sindh Government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab urged the government to defer the opening of the schools amid the uncertainties relating to COVID-19 situation, ARY News reported on Saturday.

Wahab, who is also Adviser to Chief Minister of Sindh on Law, took to Twitter on Saturday and requested the government of Sindh and Centre to reconsider their decision of opening schools on September 15, after they were shut down in a bid to secure students from the global pandemic.

He wrote that the situation “is still not certain & children may not be able to follow the SOPs”, referring to the set of Standard Operating Procedures devised by the federal government after consultations with National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) and National Coordination Committee (NCC).

As a parent, I would request the Education Department, Government of Sindh as well as the Federal Govt to reconsider the decision of opening up the schools especially the primary sections. The situation is still not certain & children may not be able to follow the SOPs

— Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui (@murtazawahab1) September 12, 2020

The NCOC on September 7, issued guidelines for the parents for sending their children to schools wherein it directed parents to ensure that child is wearing a face mask before going to school. “The mask could be surgical or made of cloth.”

Read: NCOC issues guidelines for sending children to schools

In case of cough and other diseases, the directives added, the child should not be sent to attend the school because that can easily expose threats to the lives of other children.

It is pertinent to note that Sindh education minister Saeed Ghani said on Friday that the schools will remain open for six days in a week and scraped Saturday holidays, apparently to recover the educational loss incurred amid the lockdown.

Wahab urged both the federal education department and that of Sindh’s, to reconsider their decision. He stressed that the decision of reopening “the primary sections” should be shelved.