What is happening?
Counter to advice from doctors and most healthcare officials, some universities and educational institutes are opening from the 15th of September 2020. According to official emails to the student body, education institutes like APS, IBA Karachi, among others will be resuming in-person classes for Fall 2020.
After being pressurized by private schools and universities throughout lockdown, it was announced at a meeting headed by Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood, that educational institutes across Pakistan would be reopened on the 15th of September 2020.
This, after most educational institutes in the US and Europe, had announced that they would only have online classes at least until January 2021.
Why was this step taken?
Admittedly, this decision was made in light of the dropping daily cases of COVID-19 throughout the country. The daily new infection rates dropped from a few thousand cases every day to a few hundred cases every day. If you were to call someone on the phone these days, you would notice that the classic lockdown phone message pertaining to the following of SOPs has been altered. Now you are greeted with a proclamation about the success of said SOPs in bringing down the daily cases and you are informed about the reopening of educational institutes before being asked to follow the SOPs and to take proper precautions. Most of the country has already reopened and for many, the reopening of educational institutes seemed like the next logical step.
Another factor to consider here was that this is going to be the start of a new school year and so most educational institutes preferred that there would be on-campus classes. It would be difficult to convince new students to pay tuition for online classes. For many, the whole college experience is centered around the campus life and living away from your hometown. It would be pretty underwhelming to start college in front of a computer screen in your own bedroom. It made the most sense for them to push for on-campus classes from a business point of view.
For example, considering Harvard’s decision to have an online semester, about 1/5th of the freshman class has already deferred their semesters, choosing instead to go for a break then attend online classes.
Why this can be a bad idea.
Unfortunately, college campuses and schools are some of the worst possible places to reopen at the tail end of a pandemic. For one, the feared second wave is thought by many to start spiking around fall. Secondly, it is almost impossible to ensure the following of SOPs at university campuses without intense oversight. This would require more cameras and more manpower. This would also require rigorous testing throughout the semester for both the faculty and students.
Even though there is an incredibly small chance for students to contract a fatal case of the illness, them being in the age range least susceptible to the virus, it is still a concern that they could spread the disease to their teachers and their parents. Most carriers of the disease show no signs of there having it. According to a recent study published by Agha Khan Medical College, almost 95% of the cases of the novel coronavirus are asymptomatic. This would indicate that there are actually far more cases of the virus than have been documented and reported. After all, why would you go and get tested if you feel no symptoms?
Even though most studies and reports point towards their being much fewer chances of being infected by an asymptomatic carrier, it would still be a risk to allow such people to mingle with those that might be far more susceptible to the disease than they are. It is not morally justifiable to allow students from all over the country to come in various types of transport to come to one location to attend online classes when the risk has not yet been justifiably lessened.
It is almost impossible to get students to wear a mask and use hand sanitizers and practice social distancing when they have been socially starved since March.
Furthermore, in the case of one of the biggest universities in Pakistan, IBA, it was found that the administration had not made a single allowance of medical leave. Only five absences per course are allowed and upon missing the fifth, the student will fail that course. Considering this aspect, most students would in fact want to hide the fact that they are ill for fear of failing one or multiple courses. This, owing to the recent fee hike, is even more difficult to pay for than normal.
As things stand
Despite the recent downward trend in COVID cases throughout the country, the decision of reopening universities and schools is ill-advised, to say the least. Whether the decision was taken thinking that online classes were simply not working, or because the risk of new cases was outweighed by the potential money to be made from fees collected from students that would have taken a gap year instead, it can be said that considering the prevalent global situation this decision was a bad one.
One can only hope that the second wave is not as bad as the first one, even though historically it has proven to be worse, and that this decision does not blow up in the faces of the powers that be.
Currently, a few of the recently reopened educational institutes have already been sealed due to a spike in coronavirus cases. IBA Karachi, one of the most premier business colleges in Pakistan, has recently been closed again after reopening for two days. This is due to some of the students at the hostel contracting the disease prior to their arrival at Karachi from cities across Pakistan. At the moment they are shifting towards a “flexible model” consisting of physical and online classes much like the models offered by other universities like Habib.
Considering that it has only been five days since the reopening of educational institutes, time will tell whether or not it was too soon for on campus classes.
