The Minister of Education has recently proposed the launch of a TV channel as an alternative for educational content TV to ensure students do not miss their important education amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.
Arguably, one of the biggest sectors affected in the corona virus pandemic has been the education sector. Students have been asked to leave their homes and stay in their houses as a to prevent themselves from getting affected by the virus. As students are missing out on having access to their education- assuming their institution has not already opted for an online alternative, the Minister of Education has recently announced the launch of a TV channel to offer an alternative educational content platform.
In a recent meeting, Shafqat Mahmood, the Minister of Education of Pakistan, chaired a meeting in which it was decided to launch a TV channel to offer educational content to mitigate academic losses for students around the country. The channel will work in collaboration with PTV and will be launched in the first half of April. The content will be developed in partnership with various education providers and will be free of cost. This meeting also finalized the role and involvement of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), an umbrella organization of 423 educational institutions in Islamabad, which will set up emergency learning centers where subject specialists will review and schedule the content. This will be reviewed by the Shafqat Mahmood on a daily basis.
In the wake of the realization that schools might be closed till 31st May, a senior officer of the education minister stated that: “We are working on various proposals to extend the vacations and most likely we have to extend them till May 31. But a final decision will be made during the education ministers’ conference”. Hence, he stressed that need to focus on online content and this TV channel. Syed Umair Javed, Joint Secretary Education and acting Director General of the FDE, stated that this meeting focused on the content for TV channels. Finally, FDE spokesperson Saqib Shahab added on to this by stressing that their priority is on the health and safety of the students and also added that: “Curriculum experts have been holding meetings at F-10 College”.
