PAKISTAN STUDIES

REPORT
WRITING
GROUP-3 MEMBERS

 SANIA AHMED KHAN  MUHAMMAD ALI IMRAN  NAAIL KASHIF

 HAZIQ ALI MAZHAR  MUHAMMAD ALI PIRACHA  MUHAMMAD SAAD UMAR
 OBAIDULLAH RIAZ CLASS: BS (ACF)
SECTION: B
SESSION: 2K20
 PRESENTATION’S REPORT

Since our topic, “COVID and Pakistan”, is very diverse and it comprises of many
aspects, we decided to further narrow down the topic to “COVID and its Impact on our
Education Sector”. Our group comprised of seven members; Sania Ahmed Khan, Naail
Kashif, Obaidullah Riaz, Muhammad Ali Imran, Muhammad Ali Piracha, Muhammad
Saad Umar, and Haziq Ali Mazhar.
In order to complete our presentation timely and efficiently, we divided the work into
three major components, which were designated to the group members who were most
competent in that respected component and department. Obaidullah, Naail, Sania, and
Haziq collected the points, which were forwarded to Ali Imran and Muhammad Saad
Umar, who prepared the Power Point Presentation. Finally, the Presentation was
presented by Ali Piracha, Muhammad Saad Umar and Sania Ahmed Khan.
The topic was primarily chosen because COVID imposed some drastic impacts on our
education sector which needed to be addressed. Issues like mental pressure, poor access
to internet connection and the feeling of alienation faced by university students were
some of the major issues we personally faced and thus felt the need to address them.
The main objective of our presentation was to talk about the issues students faced that
were caused by the decisions taken by the government. To expand on this topic, we
targeted different social media platforms where students of different sectors and
categories openly talked about the issues they faced. Collecting different point of views
and arranging them in a chronological order, we formed our material bank, which was
then used to prepare the presentation.
We started our presentation with the basic introduction of COVID-19; a novel virus
which causes respiratory illness in humans and transmits through the atmosphere, and
how it spread from Wuhan to Pakistan; from China to Italy and then spreading through
the rest of Europe where it eventually came to Pakistan. We showed the audience some
shocking figures related to the virus, where more than 173 million people were affected
and deaths were estimated as 4 million worldwide. And in Pakistan, these figures were
one million and twenty-two thousand respectively. Then we moved on to the issues faced
by the students of different universities which included connectivity issues, lack of
practical knowledge, lack of mental development, issues of Distant Learning (DL) and
issues of Face to Face (FTF) exams. We also discussed about the many challenges faced
by school and college students which included varying qualities of education delivered to
students over DL mode for public and private schools, cancelation of final board and
Cambridge examination, increase in number of school and college dropouts, and students
defaulting to WhatsApp learning. Each and every category of students, be it a public
school, private school, or a university, everyone was affected in this situation which
resulted in some serious psychological affects that adversely affected their mental health.
The Government played a vital role in this matter, taking some very important measures.
They initiated the Tele-school program which was done in order to minimize the
educational loss of students, they reduced the syllabus for final external exams which
could compensate for the suffering of students due to the lockdown and DL mode of
learning. The Government also expanded 3G and 4G services to far off remote places
such as FATA, rural Sindh, south Punjab and some parts of Baluchistan so that students
will be able to take classes over DL mode and can prepare for their final exams using
internet. The government also made arrangements to vaccinate teachers on priority basis
so that educational activities could return to normal as soon as possible.
Nevertheless, the government also took some measures which proved to have an
extremely negative affect on the students. On the top of this list was the change in the
exam policy at the eleventh hour, which disturbed the students immensely as they were
mentally prepared for the exams but then the dates were changed suddenly and
repeatedly. The government, at many instances, didn’t give put the university students
into consideration while they formulated academic policies which inculcated a sense of
alienation among the university students. There were several instances where certain
measures were taken just to fuel the ego of the education minister and to humiliate the
opposition parties rather than to provide maximum benefit to the students in this
desperate situation. Finally, the reopening of schools and colleges in May-June resulted
in many students fainting in the scorching heat which further proved the incompetency of
the government officials who refused to think their decisions through.
Finally, we concluded our presentation on an optimistic note than in order to return
towards normality, we must pay due attention towards the COVID-19 SOPs. We should
maintain distance, wear mask, and should limit our social interactions as much as
possible. The government has imported millions of doses of COVID Vaccinations, which
are being provided across the country. This vaccination has provided us with a ray of
hope, and we should grasp this opportunity to get ourselves vaccinated so that we could
return back to living a normal life.