Government urges HEC to reopen universities, SOPs to be discussed

The Federal Government has been considering reopening universities all across the country from the 15th of July, reports Dunya News.

The outbreak of the coronavirus closed down all educational institutes, including universities all across the globe. Universities then started conducted online classes – some even took their exams online. Students across the country had mixed feelings towards this new setup-some were even unable to attend due to internet connectivity issues.

The Federal Government, now, has formally informed the HEC that they intend to reopen universities soon and suggestions from university officials are also being taken.

The Federal Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training, Mr Shafqat Mehmood has said that they will be consulting provincial governments, the Ministry of Health Services, and other International Corona Emergency Response organisations to come up with the best ‘roadmap’ to follow towards reopening all educational institutes, especially universities. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will also be discussed.

The response seen on Twitter and other social media sites was both for and against this news. On the one hand, people believe universities have been closed for far too long and that, provided SOPs are put in place, they should reopen so that students everywhere can resume their educational lives. There are, however, many concerned students as well as parents who see the trend in new corona cases every day and how the situation is expected to get worse before it gets better and are reluctant to see themselves or their kids go back to these public hubs. “We are not going to send our children to schools in this covid pandemic. It’s a very high risk situation. Can’t put their lives on stake,” said a concerned citizen on twitter.