Federal education minister says the government will formulate SOPs that must be followed
\nour correspondent
\nISLAMABAD
\nFederal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood on Thursday announced to reopen educational institutions from September 15 under strict enforcement of standard operating procedures (SOPs).
\nAddressing a press conference here in Islamabad, the education minister said that the government has decided to resume educational activities from September 15 and provinces have been asked to formulate SOPs for school\u2019s reopening in this regard.
\n\u201cThe situation of Covid-19 in the country will be reviewed in August and September before the opening of the educational institutions. If the Covid-19 situation gets better, the educational institutions will reopen from September 15,\u201d he added.
\nHowever, the minister said that educational institutions that come under smart lockdown areas would not be allowed to resume academic activities. He said that the government was permitting universities also to admit students into hostels up
\n\u201cWe ar allowing universities to call PhD students, who are very few in number, to their laboratories for research work before September 15,\u201d he said. \u201cAs to how they do that, we leave it up to him.\u201d
\nHe said that the government was permitting universities also to admit students into hostels to 30% capacity. However, he said that \u2018health checks\u2019 which included tests and temperature checks will be done strictly by universities.
\nShafqat Mehmood said the provincial governments will be authorized to close the institutions, which do not observe SOPs while the federal government will monitor implementation of the SOPs.
\nEarlier, it was reported that govt had decided to resume educational activities across the country from the first week of September amid the coronavirus pandemic. The decision was taken in an interprovincial education ministers\u2019 conference chaired by Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood.
\nEarlier in June, the federal government had asked the provincial authorities to come up with their proposals to resume academic activities amid the coronavirus pandemic. It is pertinent to mention here that govt had canceled all board exams across the country and extended the closure of schools till July 15 as part of measures to contain the spread of COVID-I9. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Federal education minister says the government will formulate SOPs that must be followed our correspondent ISLAMABAD Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood on Thursday announced to reopen educational institutions from September 15 under strict enforcement of standard operating procedures (SOPs). Addressing a press conference here in Islamabad, the education minister said that the government has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113094,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n