PESHAWAR: KhyberPakhtunkhwa(KP) government on Tuesday announced to reopen educational institutes across the province for five days in a month amid coronavirus pandemic. A handout issued on Tuesday said that although the educational institutes are allowed to operate five days, however, they could only allow presence of four administrative officials and five teachers at a time in the institute to ensure practicing social distancing. “The school administration shall ensure availability of hand sanitizers,” the government’s handout said laying out precautions to avoid contracting coronavirus. The staff should wear masks and keep a distance of three foot between them while performing duties, said the handout while issuing directives for maintaining social distancing. It further directed all the private educational institutes to ensure provision of salaries to teachers and other staff members in the institutes. It is pertinent to mention here that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on March 13 announced to close all the public and private educational institutes across the province to combat the spread of COVID-19. The decision was taken in an emergency meeting of the KP cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Friday. It was decided in the meeting to ban all public gatherings across the province. The cabinet also ordered the evacuation of students from hostels. It has also decided to postpone official events across the province. In addition, festivals and prison visits have also been banned.
