Schools to reopen for administrative work

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Responding to the request of the All Private Schools Management Association Sindh (APSMAS), the provincial government has allowed the schools to re-open their offices to perform administrative works.

The APSMAS Chairman, Syed Tariq Shah, in a video message, informed the media on April 2 that the Government of Sindh has accepted their request and the administration blocks of the private schools will now be re-opening. 

He expressed his gratitude to the Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah and the Provincial Education Minister, Saeed Ghani, for the prompt action of issuing the notification in this regard. 

Tariq Shah, who is also Secretary General of the National Educational Council Pakistan (NECP), announced that the private schools will be operating their administration offices at the designated timings from April 3.

“The schools will be sending text messages to parents to inform them about the timings at which their administrative offices will remain open. All the standard operating procedures regarding Coronavirus (COVID-19) will be religiously followed because it’s binding on all of us to take care of each other,” he observed. 

“The schools have been advised to consider those parents compassionately who have been severely affected by the prevailing crisis. Similarly the schools will not be charging any late fee as parents couldn’t do so due to the lockdown,” the APSMAS Chairman added. 

“As the schools will now be collecting fees, it becomes their responsibility to disburse the salaries of all teachers at the earliest. I will urge them to do it as early as possible,” Tariq Shah requested. 

He also appealed to the parents to be considerate in paying the fees without further delay as the schools were entirely dependent on fee collection to meet their fixed and running costs.