EDITORIAL: As the country recorded the highest number of Covid-19 cases last Monday, a virtual conference headed by Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood and attended by his provincial counterparts decided to close down all educational institutions from November 26 to January 10. Another meeting to be held in first week of January is to decide the future course of action. Barring the period between December 25 and January 10 which will be observed as winter vacation, students are to be taught through online classes. That though is easier said than done. For, a vast majority of pupils in public, even private, schools lack access to internet. Also, teachers do not have the training to impart instructions via remote means. These factors would cause significant disruptions in learning. Perhaps, a better solution would have been to treat the closure period like the annual vacations when students are given homework to prepare for the next term. In any event, considering what is at stake are lives, some disruptions in education should be acceptable.
Notably, as per the latest data released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) while the positivity rate in the country stood at 7.46 percent, the rate in educational institutions was as high as 19 percent. That is because in most schools, especially public-sector ones, students come together in overcrowded classrooms, and also are less cautious in interacting with one another. The government has also announced that all public-sector offices are to observe 50 percent attendance till January 31, asking private organizations to follow suit. This should help. But the political class also needs to show a sense of responsibility. The opposition parties' alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), as well as the ruling PTI, have been holding super spreader events in different cities. After initially staging some counter rallies to the PDM's, the government has held back but the opposition parties remain insistent on holding mass gatherings. Despite the second surge in Covid-19 the PDM went ahead with its rally in Peshawar, arguing that since such gatherings are held in the open they are harmless. The fact of the matter is that the participants, who travel long distances in crowded buses and vans, spread the virus through droplets as they talk, eat and drink together, and shout slogans during speeches of their leaders. No wonder after a gap of four-and-a-half months novel coronavirus infections are surging by the day.
According to NCOC, 35 people have died on an average from Covid-19 during the last one week. The previous mortality rate was around 7. The coronavirus does not discriminate between the leaders (though they are relatively safe) and the led. On Thursday, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari announced he was self-isolating after testing positive for Covid-19, and that he would not be attending his sister Bakhtawar's engagement ceremony. Also, his party's government in Sindh is trying hard to have the businesses and all others observe SOPs. Yet, he is insistent on addressing the next opposition rally scheduled for November 30 in Multan, via a video link. And the PML-N, which along with the PPP had previously been calling for a total lockdown, is also trotting out all sorts of excuses now to hold the Multan rally. In so doing they are knowingly putting people's lives in danger. They need to show some concern for ordinary lives and give a rest to their anti-government campaign. That, in fact, would be a face-saving act for them since public meetings, no matter how massive, are not going to bring down the government.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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