Students of grades 9, 10, 11, and 12 will resume in-school classes twice a week in public and private schools across 13 districts of Punjab from Monday.
Punjab’s education minister Murad Raas shared the announcement on his Twitter account.
According to the minister, students in the following Punjab districts will attend school on Monday and Thursday starting April 19:
- Lahore
- Rawalpindi
- Faisalabad
- Sheikupura
- Gujranwala
- Gujrat
- Sialkot
- Multan
- Sargodha
- Bahawalpur
- Rahim Yar Khan
- Dera Ghazi Khan
The remaining Punjab districts will follow the regular school schedule, the minister added.
In a follow-up tweet, he added that COVID-19 standard operating procedures will be followed as students will be able to “spread over the whole school” because of the availability of empty 1-8 classrooms.
The Punjab education minister had announced earlier this month that students of 1-8 grades will continue online classes until Eid. Exams for O and A Level students will continue as scheduled, he added.
A meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) and all education ministers was held on April 6th to review the opening of educational institutions in light of rising COVID-19 cases in the country.
Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood, in a press briefing after the meeting, announced that educational institutions will resume studies for grades 9-12 from April 19 and exams will be held in May.
The decision to resume in-person classes for nursery to 8th-grade students will be reviewed on 28 April. The meeting will decide whether in-person classes will remain suspended till Eid.
Meanwhile, board exams for Matric and Intermediate students will be delayed until the third week of May and may continue until July, the federal minister added. The provincial governments will decide on the exact exam schedules based on the severity of the COVID situation in the concerned areas, he added. Accordingly, universities will be requested to delay their admission cycles; however, online classes will continue as per the schedule.
