Does school closure give us the power to provide facilities like other countries?

Unfortunately, after the rapid spread of the Corona phase in Pakistan, educational institutions were also on the verge of collapse. When the first case came to light in Karachi on February 26, 2020, it soon spread across the country, dragging life as well as the education sector into a lockdown.

Will the students go back to school???

There is a question that needs to be answered because, after a long and back-to-back closure of institutions, students’ studies were greatly affected. However, it seems that the coronavirus has spread very fast in Pakistan, so the government imposed a lockdown on educational institutions to take care of the health of children. With the closure of educational institutions and the non-attendance of children at school, literacy began to decline. In 2019 our literacy rate was 60% but in 2020 it decreased by 2% to 58%. If we continue to do the same thing, things could get worse. Many students lost interest in these long intervals. In the first break, many children dropped out of school, and in the third wave, similar incidents occurred.

Whenever he was asked the reason why he dropped out of school, the answer was that every two to three months we face a long break, so we got sick of this act.

Many other students suffer in the same way. This is increasing our dropout ratio.

There is no denying that education is extremely acceptable for the development of any nation. Schools were closed almost all year round and now many other school holidays continue under the pretext of summer vacation.

Justice demands struggle

During the closure of colleges and universities, students were promoted to online classes which were not acceptable on any occasion. First of all, the Internet was a big first problem because there is no access to the Internet in many parts of the country. Internet access is far from mobile signals. Apart from the unavailability of the internet, there are many other flaws in the online learning system.
Students lose face-to-face communication with teachers and cannot focus on the material that teachers provide.

Second, most students are not digitized and do not have computers or laptops, or smartphones. The government fought the virus openly but also in the field of education, paying special attention to university-level students and launching online classes for them but about 40% of the students are in the primary section. Lost facilities? And then universities in big cities can offer online classes, but not in small towns and cities.

The deadly consequences of these breaks have affected education, students, and teachers. Other countries have suggested different ways to prevent the coronavirus, but unfortunately, this was not possible due to the lack of facilities in our country.

However, schools, colleges, and universities were closed so that people could limit their communication with each other. But despite this, the people kept coming out without taking care of the SOPs, and the communication, gatherings, walks, and entertainment was the same as before.

It’s really good to take precautions and protect your health, but we also have to take care of our education.

The government should end these long gaps and bring about a new and bigger change in educational institutions to continue them.

Our Populist Prime Minister

There are examples of a lack of facilities in many parts of Pakistan. Since I am from the Pishin district of Balochistan, there is no provision that if a private school makes a lot of money, the school is closed to the parents.

Despite the emphasis on paying fees, the city has two boys ‘high schools, a girls’ high school, and a girls ‘degree college, a boys’ degree college, and a Balochistan University Quetta sub-campus, but private schools and colleges 80% of children come from different rural areas to study in the city and less than 30% of the people here have access to internet or computer, while in rural areas mobile signals do not come and then in rural areas, 18 While the city has a long load shedding of 12 hours.

After the closure of educational institutions, only one private school started offering online classes, which was closed due to the lack of internet, computer and electricity facilities in rural areas.

The government of Pakistan, especially the government of Balochistan, should focus on the education sector throughout the province, and set up monthly workshops in rural areas or districts to understand the importance of education, educate the people, and help in providing every facility, teachers said. Should also focus on teaching modern technology and quality of education.