Staff Reporter
With schools reopening across the country on Monday, the Punjab government has issued instructions for schools to comply with. A notification issued by the School Education Department informed the schools about the decisions taken in the Inter Provincial Education Ministers Conference (IPEMC). It said that rules have been developed in line with the federal education ministry’s notification issued on January 5. According to the notification, students from all the educational institutes will attend classes on alternative days. The student ratio must remain at a 50% on each day. The provincial department stated that the board examinations for SSC and HSSC students will be held in May and June.
“The Accelerated learning Programme (ALP) communicated earlier shall continue to be followed by the Public Schools. Assessment criteria and Examinations schedule for 5th and 8th grade shall be communicated separately by the Punjab Examination Commission,” read the notification. The department reminded all schools to “ensure strict implementations of SOPs” that have been communicated over time by the Primary & Secondary Healthcare Department and School Education Department, Punjab. “School timing shall be observed as per previous practice in winter season,” added the notification. Primary schools will reopen from February 1.
Higher education institutes still to reopen by February 1 as decided earlier. Latest statistics show that the positivity ratio has gone down to 6.10%, but it is still high, the rate of critical patients is still as high as it was in November and so is the infection rate, he said. “One thing is clear: all those associated with education in. politics or the government realise that learning levels of children has been severely affected because of the closure of schools,” Mehmood had said.
