Ever since the government has announced that schools and colleges are reopening from the 15th of September, there have been a lot of questions. After this, the All Pakistan Private Schools’ Association defied government orders and said that they will be opening schools from 15th August.
As per their viewpoint, schools and colleges have been closed for 6 months now which has had a major impact on students’ education. They claim that “they would open the schools as per standard operating procedures (SOPs)”. Parents are not able to pay their dues as well. Hence, most of them laid off their staff too. The Chairperson added “Coronavirus is on a decline in the country and it’s finally time that schools are reopened”. They have been demanding relief measures for their payments and staff salaries. And the government should help those parents who are unable to pay.
However, from the parents perspective, there is no way that schools can control or follow SOPs. Schools need to take precautionary measures. Students for primary levels will not be able to adopt social distance
and wear a mask for straight 6 to 8 hours. Children are vulnerable to this virus. While schools for grade 9 onwards should be opened. This age level students are taking online classes for granted too. Hence, at this stage, more deliberation is needed.
YUSRA FATEH,
Karachi.