Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party Leader Ms Sharmila Farooqui on Sunday suggested the Sindh government that all students of the government and private schools from class 1 to 11 should be promoted in next classes without examination due to alarming spread of coronavirus disease in the country  as the immune system of the children upto 11th class is weak as per medical sciences and virus could stay for three to four months or beyound.

“Some foreign countries have taken such decisions as a relief to the students, India’s Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has also taken such decision and has directed its Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to promote all students of classes 1 to 11 to the next classes in view of the situation due to the coronavirus outbreak in the country. In South Korea, new academic year has been started online while China has also  started online classes in some states,” she said in a statement.

Sharmila said to make such decisions, a meeting of all stakeholders, including education ministry, private schools and related bureaucrats, should be held to discuss the education issue of children due to Covid-19 and  all government and private schools be ordered to promote the children from 1 to 11 class.  Besides this, new classes for them should be started online in real time.

She said that online classes will reduce expenses and stress on the students and their parents during summer days. However, students should be bounded to attend their new classes after their two months holidays complete. There should be no summer vacation in June and July this time in view of online classes.

The PPP leader also suggested that the schools and colleges should be provided latest technology for online classes and all the classes be recorded on Internet so that those who miss online classes could get another chance to attend it some other time.  However, 70% attendance should also be made mandatory for the students. The fastest Internet speed should also be provided to rural areas, she said.

She said: The coronavirus pandemic has forced schools and college campuses worldwide to go online and start a new era of education by reducing stress of students, Sindh and all other provinces also need to do so.”

Sharmila said several localities in Karachi and Lahore had been put under complete lockdown amid rising coronavirus cases. Yesterday, 104 new coronavirus cases have been detected in Sindh and six people have died of it yesterday and Sindh witnesseed world’s highest average growth in coronavirus cases on Saturday, she pointed out. In the US, over 6000 people have died in just three days and almost the same ratio of deaths has occurred in Italy and Spain during the same days. These deaths are also alarming warning for us, so time has come to take real benefit from Information Technology, she said.