Pakistan has reopened schools in these cities

After months of back and forth, schools in multiple cities across Pakistan reopened on Monday, May 24.

The National Command and Operation Centre announced, earlier this week, to resume classes in cities where the coronavirus infection rate was below 5%.

On Saturday, all the provincial governments held meetings to identify the districts where educational institutions should remain open and where they shouldn’t.

Here is what was finalised:

In the cities where the Covid-19 infection rate is higher than 5%, educational institutions there will remain closed till June 6. These include cities such as Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Multan. The government will decide their fate after reviewing the virus trend.

Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood will hold an inter-provincial meeting today to decide when and where intermediate and matric exams will be held. Earlier, they were postponed till June 15.

O and A level exams for the May/June session have, on the other hand, been pushed to October and November.

Pakistan schools and coronavirus

All educational institutions across the country were closed in late February 2020 after coronavirus cases began to rise. They were reopened in phases starting September 15, 2020.

On November 23, 2020, after the second wave of coronavirus cases hit the country, the government announced that all educational institutions would close again from November 26, 2020.

Classes were taken online till December 24, 2020, and winter vacations started from December 25, 2020, and were supposed to last till January 10. The government said it would hold a meeting to review the decision to reopen schools on January 4.

The NCOC then decided that schools would reopen in phases with classes nine to 12 being the first to reopen on January 18.