‘Govt won’t allow schools to become COVID hotspots’

NUWAKOT, SEPTEMBER 8

Minister of Education, Science and Technology Girirajmani Pokharel has said that the government will stop schools from being the hotspots of coronavirus infection.

Addressing a virtual programme organised in Nuwakot today on the occasion of International Literacy Day, Minister Pokharel said that alternative teaching methodology would be adopted for stopping schools from being the hotspots of coronavirus infection.

“Classes can be run at present in districts where infection cases are low but it will be too difficult to contain the virus if it spreads at the school-level. We have limited means and resources. So, we have to opt for distance-education,” Minister Pokhrel added.

He was of the view that physical presence of students at schools was not likely in the present context.

On the occasion, Pokharel also argued that there was no option but to introduce modern technology and system for continuing educational activities.

To effectively run alternate and distance education, coordination between all three layers of government is vital, said the minister and asked the local levels to prepare plans for continuing teaching-learning activities.

Imparting education traditionally in the time of coronavirus infection is not possible, he said while adding that the government was working to ensure right to education in the time of crisis.

Minister Pokhrel, on the occasion, said that Posta Bahadur Bogati School would be run in Nuwakot district.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on September 9, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.