Sindh govt drops 2nd phase of opening schools over SOPs violations: Saeed Ghani

KARACHI: Keeping in view the continuous violation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) by schools and parents, the Sindh Education Department has decided to postpone the second phase of opening schools in which classes from six to eight were to be opened on September 21.

Sindh Minister for Education and Labor Saeed Ghani expressed these views in the statement released here on Friday.

The situation would be monitored, he said adding if situation improves, the classes from six to eight would be opened in the third phase with pre-primary and primary classes.

If the situation did not improve, the decision would be announced accordingly, the minister maintained.

Saeed Ghani said the Sindh government would not compromise on the health of its children under any circumstances.

"We cannot play with children's health for the sake of their education and financial losses of the schools," he said.

"From day one, we appealed to parents to implement SOPs designed for children, but unfortunately we do not see any positive progress from the parents side," he lamented and added, "Parents can help to open educational institutions by implementing SOPs."

"However, we have coordinated with federal and provincial educational ministers into the matter," he added.

Replying to a question, the education minister said with the help of Microsoft, we had so far completed the registration of more than 500,000 students for online classes and created their IDs and the process was in progress.