Educational institutions, primary, middle schools and universities, reopened Monday across the country after a gap of nearly three months, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Children were escorted by their parents to the schools which had been closed on account of the second wave of the coronavirus.

While expressing their views on the occasion, most of the students said they were delighted at the resumption of classes. They said already their studies had suffered, and now they hoped that they would be able to cover their course.

At several educational institutions, particularly in big cities, the classes resumed in compliance with the Covid-19-related standard operating procedures (SOPs).

Temperatures of the students were checked on arrival while sanitisers have also been arranged by the management of educational institutions.

Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood wished the best of luck to students on Twitter Sunday night.

“All the remaining educational institutions are opening tomorrow. I wish the very best to all students,” he said in his tweet.

Mahmood also advised the universities not resuming classes despite the government’s permission to revisit their decision.

The federal minister for education was of the view that online classes, no matter how beneficial they were for the students, but could not be a replacement for on-campus classes.

https://twitter.com/Shafqat_Mahmood/status/1355949672213450754

On January 15, federal education minister, while addressing the media, had said that the educational institutions, from grade 9 to grade 12, would reopen across the country from January 18.

Addressing the media after a meeting of the federal and education ministers and health authorities with the NCOC, he said the schools for Grade 1 to Grade 18 students will now be reopened on February 1 instead of January 25.

He said the higher education institutes would also reopen as per the previous announcement on February 1.

The federal and provincial education and health ministers attended the meeting of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) which was chaired by Planning Minister Asad Umar.

He said no student will be promoted this year without taking the examinations and keeping this in view they have decided to reopen the educational institutes from grade 9 to grade 12 as they will have to sit in the examinations.

Shafqat said the forum had also decided that students in Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore and Peshawar would attend classes with 50 per cent strength on alternate days.