It is going to be almost 6 months since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in Pakistan which started back at the end of March. The Government has imposed a lockdown and educational institutes are closed since then. Universities shut down in the mid of the semester and students panicked for their grades. reopen institutes
Problems with remote learning
The government is making policies for the reopening of schools, colleges, and universities in the mid of September, but who knows they change the policy to not reopening institutes any sooner.
Institutes are trying hard to run the online education system smoothly, but it is a failed system in Pakistan. Firstly, not everyone has fast internet connections in their homes, the majority of the rural areas of Pakistan doesn’t even have an internet connection at all. Which is contributing to the loss of studies to many students who have moved to their villages since their institutes were closed, especially those students who were living in hostels.
Secondly, there aren’t usually multiple devices in one house to carry on with online classes, as mostly in one household multiple siblings are studying in one school at the same time. One of the sibling has to wait for the other to get finished with their class so they could use a laptop or mobile or any means of attaining online classes, which is a waste of time.
Read More: Pakistan: Is it safe to reopen schools now?
Extended Screentime can be problematic
Besides wastage of time in online classes, it has been observed that increased screen timing of the young generation is badly affecting their eyes and brains. This is also ultimately leading them to depression and anxiety as the healthy activities that were being performed in schools are not being carried out for long.
And mostly children, specifically boys, while given the cell phones to attend online classes don’t care about their classes at all, instead they start playing video games or chatting with friends, deceiving their parents.
Apart from this, many young students, especially from primary sections of the school, are not aware of operating online classes and submitting their homework on the website, their mothers have to carry out this task.
But the problem is, only a few mothers are aware of using technology very much, rest of the mothers seek help from other family members and in this way one child tends to engage whole of the family for carrying out the online assessment tasks being given by the schools, which has disturbed the routine of all of the other family members. Now is the time Government should opt for reopening all the education institutes.
Read More: When is Punjab going to reopen schools?
Threat of coronavirus has passed: Time to reopen institutes
Now that the Eid-ul-Adha has been passed safely and it was observed there was no surge in the increase of the coronavirus patients, which means Coronavirus is dying in Pakistan according to the statistics shown by Wikipedia, the peak of COVID-19 cases were recorded in the mid of June when 5000-6000 cases were observed on daily basis, but the graph has now declined to 500-600 cases each day which will further be reduced if proper SOPs are being followed.
The smart lockdown that was implemented by our Prime minister is now lifting slowly, and the government has announced to reopen all institutes on 15 September, but this government is a master of U-turns’, you never know when Government undoes its policies. The government should take one policy for lifting lockdown and then stick to it, as it is now a dire need to reopen institutes.
Read More: UK reopens schools despite rising cases of infection
Reopen institutes and strictly follow SOPs
Parents who are worrying for their children to catch on the coronavirus should educate them about the SOPs to be followed and allow their children to get physical education in schools.
Schools strictly need to follow all the SOPs regarding the Coronavirus, they should provide face masks to every student free of cost as students have already been paying heavy fees while staying home, every student should have their sanitizers with them.
A distance of 6 feet should be strictly maintained, and teachers should keep a keen eye on students for not letting them shake their hands. If a student feels sick, he should be permitted to stay home for 14 days without shortlisting their attendance.
That’s how together we can fight this pandemic, and bring an end to COVID-19 without the loss of education.
The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.