EDITORIAL: Each wave of the coronavirus has presented schools with its own, fresh share of challenges. And the problem with the fourth one is that although the number of new cases as well as deaths is rising very sharply, it is also pretty much understood that schooling of children just cannot be put on hold indefinitely any longer. It’s true that some schools have managed to keep things going with their online classes, etc., but a very large number of students in this country do not even have internet access, much less as many laptop computers as there are children in the house. Therefore, even though schools were shut down once again in Sindh, where the fourth wave of the pandemic has caused the most severe damage so far, it has very wisely been decided to reopen them while taking the maximum care possible.
The condition that only schools that can guarantee 100 percent vaccination of the staff would be allowed to open, that too with 50 percent attendance, and only those students would be let in whose parents provide proof of complete vaccination, ought to go a long way in controlling further spread of the virus. The provincial education minister was spot on when he said that one case of coronavirus in a school can endanger a fairly large number of families. This way they can at least make sure that no children will act as silent carriers and take the deadly disease into their homes.
There is of course only so much that the government can do. It can lend a very sincere ear to the needs of the schools as well as the students, and go as far as carving out a strategy that provides a safe enough environment to reopen schools. But it is for the schools now to ensure effective tactical implementation of that strategy. If it turns out that even a few schools are a little lax about enforcing the strictest possible Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and the virus spikes as a result, then all schools and all students will suffer as a result of the folly of just a handful of them. Needless to say of course that Pakistan cannot afford any such thing at this time. If the virus doesn’t begin to recede very soon it will begin to drain the economy just when it needs to grow. Just the other day the country passed the forbidding milestone of 90,000 active cases for the first time since April and 25,000 deaths from Covid-19.
There’s also the matter of reviving the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme, negotiations for which are poised very delicately. It would be a shame if the Fund is able to arm-twist us into accepting the tariff and revenue targets that we’ve been trying to avoid just because people didn’t follow safety protocols and exposed the economy to another painful lockdown. The Sindh government’s proposal of reopening schools only after all staff and parents of all students are vaccinated is therefore a step in the right direction. Other provinces should also quickly see the wisdom in this approach and emulate it before wasting any time. The federal government has also given people a month or so to get vaccinated or be banned from all sorts of public transport as well as domestic and international air travel.
Such steps are necessary to increase the rate of vaccinations, which is a very tall order considering our large population and the speed with which the fourth wave of the deadly virus is spreading up and down the country. Hopefully, the instructions of the government will be followed to the letter and nobody will give others any reason to suffer.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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