Following Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood’s announcement on Friday, schools have finally re-opened today after a two month hiatus.
At a press conference in Islamabad, the Education Minister called for all classes from 9 to 12 to resume from Monday, January 18, 2021. He stated that these specific classes were being prioritized because of ‘board exams that have been postponed.’
Today, several students were seen hopping out of vans and buses towards their schools as traffic grew more congested than usual.
Shafqat Mahmood also announced that as the government has stated that no 9th to 12th graders would be promoted to higher grades without examinations, as was done last year, it is necessary for the students to resume offline classes.
Students of classes 1 to 8, who were earlier scheduled to rejoin school on January 25, will now go to school on February 1.
Private schools across the country opposed the decision to keep them shut, and have been pressing for government authorities to allow students to return to campuses. Many students across the country, however, have been expressing protest against reopening institutes and taking offline examination. On Friday, the hashtags “#ShafqatMehmood” and “#CloseSchoolsNow” were among the top five trends on Twitter.
