Saeed Ghani says Sindh will not resume five-day classes, will only allow 50% attendance

Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani has said that the province will not be implementing the five-day classes policy and will only allow 50% of the students.

In a presser, the education minister said that implementation of coronavirus Standard Operating Procedures (SOPS) will not be possible with 100 percent of the students in attendance, adding that maintaining social distancing will become hard.

He said though coronavirus cases have decreased over the past few weeks, the virus has not been completely eradicated. "Once the pandemic ends, all children will be allowed to go to school," Ghani said.

Earlier, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) also said that the resumption of five-day classes from March 1 policy does not apply to universities. HEC issued a statement clarifying that all universities will continue to operate as per guidelines issued by the HEC earlier. In a Twitter post, HEC said the education ministry's announcement is about the resumption of a regular school week of five days for urban centers of Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, and Peshawar.

The commission added that NCOC has removed the three-day school week in these cities following a fresh assessment of the prevailing situation.

On February 25, Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood had announced that all schools will go back to regular five-day classes from March 1.