Unhappy students return to school after two months

Unhappy Students from grade 9 to 12 returned to school across the country after a break of two months because of the rising number of coronavirus cases and winter vacations, report 24NewsHD TV Channel Monday.

The schools have opened with strict compliance of coronavirus standard operating procedures. Students of classes 8 and below will return to school from February 1. The schools were reopened after a high-level committee agreed on a phase-wise reopening of schools.

However, the returning students were unhappy to come to the school as they said the sword of coronavirus was still hanging over them.

They showed their strong reservations and said amid the coronavirus pandemic, the reopening of schools and forcing the students to take the examinations could not be justified.

The students vow to launch a countrywide social media campaign on Twitter against these unjustifiable steps taken by the government.

On the other hand, parents were also worried and were perplexed about whether to send their children to school or not.

They were of the view that there was no decline either in coronavirus cases during the second wave or in the ration of virus-related deaths and wondered why the government has decided to put the health and lives of the children at risk.

Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pajeeho has also said that the NCOC has forced its decision of reopening the schools but it is dangerous until the positivity ration of the coronavirus cases declines.

On Friday, January 16, the minister had held a high-level meeting at the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) to review the decision to reopen educational institutions amid the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

During the meeting, it was decided that classes will start for students of grades nine to 12 from January 18 as decided earlier.

Unlike the previous year, the federal and provincial governments also decided that students will not be promoted without exams. A one-week extension was granted to start the classes for students of grades 1-8. They were earlier supposed to start by January 25. It was decided that primary schools will reopen from February 1, while higher education institutes will also reopen from February 1 as decided earlier.

The NCOC will re-evaluate data in a week and decide whether primary schools and higher education institutes will reopen on February 1 in cities where infections rates are high. The minister also decided in the meeting that if the infection rate is high in a particular city, educational institutes may not reopen there.