LAHORE: The All Pakistan Private Schools Federation and the Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) on Thursday opposed the government decision to postpone board examinations and closure of all educational institutions in the country till July 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Most public and private institutions continue online education during the closure of campuses.

Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said all schools, universities and other educational institutions would remain closed till July 15. He was addressing the nation alongside Prime Minister Imran Khan and said that all board examinations were cancelled.

“We will pass or fail students on the basis of their results of the previous year,” he announced and said the students’ health and their education could not be compromised.

Meanwhile, Punjab Minister for School Education Murad Raas also tweeted about closure of the public and private schools in the province.

“Announcement: All Public and Private Schools will remain closed till July 15, 2020, in Punjab due to Corona Virus. The lives of our children, teachers and their families are priority # 1. Details of promotion to next classes & board exams will be explained in the Notification.”

In a press release, the minister said the government had closed educational institutions for another 45 days till July 15 and the step was taken for the health of teachers and students. He said all the examinations were cancelled and soon they would issue a notification to elaborate promotion mechanism for next classes.

The PTU office-bearers soon after the announcement issued a press release stating that the government should revise/ rethink its decision of cancellation of board examinations and closure of schools till July 15.

PTU president Chaudhry Sarfraz, Sajjad Akbar Kazmi, Rana Liaquat, Rana Altaf, Rana Anwar and Abdul Qayum Rahi said cancelling the board examinations was an inappropriate decision and it would leave bad effect on the education sector.

They said they could understand that grade 1 to 8 students could be promoted to next classes but they were unable to understand how grade-9 students could be promoted to grade-10, grade-11 students to 12 and so on. They said grade-10 examinations were conducted and only science practical would have to be conducted and special measures could have been taken to hold these practical examinations.

They suggested that grade 9, 10, 11, and 12 classes strength could be minimised to 20 students and their education could be continued in June and the government should revise its strategy of closing the schools till July 15 as it would leave irreversible and bad impact on the education sector.

The All Pakistan Private School Federation president Kashif Mirza said private educational institutions of the country rejected the government decision to close institutions. He said it would be economic murder of the private educational institutes and demanded that the prime minister announce package for them as 90pc of the private sector educational institutes were situated in rented buildings.

He said around one million people would lose employment and 50pc private educational institutes would be closed till July 15. He said the lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic would bring irreparable loss to the educational institutes.

“The government should develop SOPs to open the institutes on June 1 otherwise they would be forced to open the institutes,” he said.

Mr Kashif also said cancellation of board examinations would destroy education and demanded that the examinations be conducted by maintaining social distancing and turning public and private institutes into exam centres.

He said the government should also take back its notification of giving 20pc concession in the fee and said the notification was against the Constitution of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2020