Schools, colleges and universities reopen across Pakistan today

• Physical classes have resumed in most schools across the country.
• Education institutes in Sindh are opened for classes 9 and above.
• Schools in six KP districts are also closed due to COVID-19.

KARACHI: The in-person learning at educational institutes have resumed across Pakistan today (Monday), except for primary classes in Sindh, as COVID-19 cases decline after a deadly third wave.

Schools, colleges and universities have started holding in-person classes with strict SOPs in place to keep the pandemic in check.

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has allowed authorities to resume physical education in districts where the positivity ratio is less than 5% from May 24 in the first phase, while those with a higher prevalence of the virus were scheduled to open from June 7. 

The Sindh government, however, had decided to extend lockdown restrictions due to higher positivity rate in the province and kept schools closed for another two weeks.

In a meeting of the Provincial Task Force for Coronavirus on Sunday, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah green signalled the reopening of schools for classes 9 and above with directions for strict implementations of COVID-19 SOPs and ordered teachers to vaccinate themselves within two weeks.

In Punjab, education activities have also resumed at all public and private schools. According to a notification from the school education department, only 50% of students shall attend classes on a given day and no student shall attend the school for two consecutive days.

In a Tweet, provincial Education Minister Murad Raas said government teams will be monitoring the situation very closely.

Meanwhile, in Islamabad, students of grades 1-8 have started in-person classes from today after the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), which oversees public sector schools and colleges in the federal capital, issued a notification to this effect. The schools are already conducting classes for grades 9-10.

Similarly, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, schools in 30 districts were opened and universities resumed classes from today. However, in six districts including Peshawar, where the COVID-19 cases are still being reported in high number of schools are ae still closed till further orders.