Shoaib Ansari 
During a press conference, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood announced that high schools will resume from January 18, whereas, primary and secondary schools along with colleges will reopen from February 1.
Mahmood in a tweet announced the dates of the reopening of schools with special emphasis on classes 9-12 on account of board exams that have been deferred to May, June”.
In Dec 2020, Mahmood expressed great concern about the education of students as the first and second waves of coronavirus pandemic forced the educational institutions to close down in order to protect students and teachers from the spread of the virus.
Mahmood stated that in 2021, high school students would be promoted after final exams, in comparison to previous year as they were promoted to the next class due to the virus outbreak. Now, it’s decided that students’ classes must proceed according to the plans.
The government will also decide, where conceivable, for children that live in lockdown areas to be able to attend schools once per week to collect homework, he added.
The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) will examine infection rates next week in various urban areas and regions before reopening educational institutions for all students.
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If we find that the infection rate is high then we will keep the schools closed, however, the decision to postpone the reopening due to high infection rates is not yet been reviewed, Mehmood expressed.
It was additionally concluded that the new session would start in August to give students more time to cover the prospectus as schools stayed shut from March to September and from November ahead in 2020.
The conference of the education ministers had additionally decided to suspend the board exams for class 9-12 from March-April to May-June in order to provide additional time to cover their syllabus.
Following the NCOC meeting, Punjab Education Minister Murad Raas tweeted that the resuming dates of education institutions in the region as well as stating that the situation is monitored daily for the safety of families, teachers, and students.
