Ghani says no final decision taken for SSC exams date
KARACHI : The Sindh government has decided to maintain the existing coronavirus restrictions across the province amid a surge in the Covid-19 cases.
It was decided at a meeting of the provincial task force on coronavirus on Thursday that was chaired by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and attended by provincial ministers, the chief secretary, IG, additional chief secretary home, Karachi commissioner and other officials.
The chief minister said that on the day of Eid-ul-Fitr on May 13, there were 1,232 coronavirus cases in the province and after Eid on May 19, the cases were 2,076 cases, which is a 10.2 percent increase and shows that cases are increasing in Sindh. Karachi has reported 16.82 percent of these cases.
The members of the task force and experts at the meeting advised the chief minister to continue with the existing coronavirus restrictions in the province.
The chief minister said if the rate of cases decreases, the restrictions will be relaxed. “If the cases increase, we will impose stricter restrictions, but we are finding it difficult to relax the restrictions [currently] in the province,” he said.
He instructed the task force members to review the situation and suggest further steps, while it was decided to maintain the current Covid-19 restrictions across the province.
Separately, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani has said that the final decision about the exams for ninth and tenth classes has not been taken yet.
The provincial minister also reiterated that compulsory examinations of all classes would be held and no one would be promoted without examinations this year. The ministers said this while chairing a meeting of the school education and literacy department to discuss arrangements for the coming annual exams of matriculation and intermediate.
During the inter-provincial ministers’ meeting, various proposals had been put forward and suggestions sought from all the provinces regarding the restoration of educational activities and schedule of examinations.
Ghani stated that in the last meeting of the steering committee, it was decided to start the matriculation exams on July 1 and the intermediate exams on July 28.
“In view of the current situation, we have suspended the teaching process till May 23 in the light of the decision of the NCOC [National Command and Operation Centre] meeting and we will take up the matter further in the next meeting,” he added.
The meeting was informed that all the boards had completed preparations for holding the examinations on the scheduled dates. The education minister directed them to consider other options as well and prepare a report and submit it to him.
The meeting was attended by School Education Secretary Ahmed Bakhsh Narejo, Additional Secretary Dr Fauzia Khan, Sindh Board Committee and Board of Intermediate Education Karachi Chairman Dr Saeeduddin, and others. TLTP
