PESHAWAR: The National Education Council (NEC), a group of private educational institutions, has rejected the government’s decision about extension of vacations due to the rising number of coronavirus cases and warned to launch a protest campaign from April 5 for opening of the institutions.
Talking to the media here on Sunday, NEC Chairman Nazar Hussain said that the owners were not ready to keep doors of their institutions closed any longer and the owners would soon announce an end to the vacations on their own, if the government did not accept their demand.
Accompanied by different organizations of private schools including Zafar Iqbal, Meraj Nabi, Gul Nabi and others, Nazar Hussain said that the closure of educational institutions was tantamount to putting the future of millions of students at stake. He said the closure of educational institutions would cause irreparable loss to the education sector and the students would be unable to maintain their studies level in the prevailing situation if vacations did not end.
The private educational institutions, he said were following standard operating procedures and the decision was taken without taking the stakeholders into confidence. He alleged that shopping markets, public transport and many other sectors were operating without following the SOPs but action was not taken against them.
The NEC chief said that owners of all private institutions would hold a protest rally outside provincial assembly on April 5 and they would also participate in the protest sit-in outside parliament on Mar 31. He said the worst affected were the small level schools because many of them were closed permanently due to the financial crisis. “Government should announce a financial relief package for the schools to survive as those functioning in rented buildings are unable to survive and will ultimately shut their doors for ever,” he feared and many of the children had said goodbye to education due to prolonged closure of the institutions.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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