Karachi: Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani has warned that the higher education sector would be completely ruined if for one more year the students were declared to have passed the secondary school certificate and college annual examinations without actually appearing in the exams due to COVID-19.
Speaking at a press conference, Sindh Education Minister said that unlike the past year no student at any level of school and college education would be promoted to the next grade this time without holding the annual exams.
He said that coronavirus pandemic could delay the holding of annual school and college exams this year but cancelling them, as was done in the last year, is no more an option this time.
He said that keeping in view the significance of the matriculation and college exams, the Sindh government had not suspended the proper classroom education of the students from Class 9 to 12 so to let them complete their studies.
He mentioned that the decision to suspend in-person classroom education of students of up to Class 8 of schools in Sindh for 16 days had been taken purely out of compulsion.
The Education Minister emphasised that they were fully aware of the harm done to the cause of education whenever a decision was taken to suspend teaching in schools and colleges but there would be no compromise on the health of students.
Ghani informed journalists that the coronavirus cases had been prevailing in the educational institutions of the province with a ratio of 2.7 per cent but they could not wait for this rate to exceed 10 per cent before suspending the classroom-based education of students of junior classes.