Education Minister of Punjab Murad Raas said that the schools are going to be commenced from June 7.
Addressing a press conference along with, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid on Friday, who said that the government is trying hard to vaccinate all the teachers before the opening of schools.
Raas said that the vaccination centre would inoculate the teaching and non-teaching staff of both public and private schools, noting that there were 16,000 teachers and 4,000 non-teaching staff in Lahore.
“I request all teachers of public and private schools and non-teaching staff to get vaccinated before June 7 because we are going to open schools on June 7,” the minister said, adding that the provincial government would open similar vaccination centres in the nine divisional headquarters in order to inoculate the maximum number of teachers.
He further stated that the teachers who bring their documentation to the vaccination centres would be vaccinated on priority.
It is pertinent to mention here that the National Command and Operation Centre on Friday decided to allow walk-in vaccination for teachers above 18 years of age to ensure a safe environment for education and conducting exams.
The centre of the national effort in the fight against Covid-19 took to Twitter to announce the decision regarding vaccination of educators.
The NCOC wrote on its official handle, “To ensure safe environment for education and conduct of exams, walk-in vaccination for teachers above 18 years of age is opened.”
It added that teachers could walk-in to any vaccination centre with CNIC, stamped letter from the head of Institution, Teachers’ ID Card, and get themselves vaccinated.
It may be mentioned here that prior to visiting any nearest Covid Vaccination Centre it was advised to get registered after sending 16-digit CNIC on 1166.
In a separate tweet, the NCOC also informed about total Covid vaccine inoculations being carried out across the country in past 24 hours.
There were 284,975 Covid vaccines have been administered on Thursday whereas the total vaccine administered till now were 6,709,848.
NCOC Chairman Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar also wrote on his official Twitter handle to announce NCOC meeting decision.
Asad said, “In the NCOC meeting today it was decided to open up walk in vaccination for 30 plus individuals from tomorrow (May 29).”
He urged the masses, “So if you are 30 or older and registered please go to any vaccination centre and get vaccinated.”
Moreover, Dr Yasmin informed that 3.5 million people have been vaccinated against coronavirus across the province so far.
Rashid reminded the public that the first vaccine dose did not guarantee the production of antibodies, urging them to follow all health precautions until after getting their second dose.
She said that a person could get Covid-19 even after getting vaccinated, but the jab would reduce the severity of the disease and prove to be potentially life-saving.
A day earlier, intermediate students in Sialkot asked the governmental authorities to postpone their exams.
The students gathered at Clock Tower and Allama Iqbal Chowk to protest against the holding of exams after Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood allowed exams to take place.
“Our request is just that the exams be delayed so we get more time to study or they may be cancelled altogether,” said a student.
The protesters complained that due to Covid-19, classes were not taking place on campus. “We went to college only for a month this year,” said a student, urging the authorities to “take an exam based on just a few chapters then.”
The Education Ministry has decided to hold intermediate and matriculation exams in the third week of June.
Moreover, the federal education ministry has issued a no-objection certificate to the British Council to conduct “special” O level exams from July 26 till August 6, which the government had earlier postponed amid a surge in coronavirus cases and deaths.
“We issued an NOC today to British Council, allowing it to hold special O level exams from July 26 to August 6. This will facilitate O level students to start A level or FA/Fsc from September. This kind of exam in July is unprecedented and I am happy that Cambridge is arranging it,” the education minister tweeted on Thursday.
A letter shared by the minister that was sent to the country director of British Council-Pakistan stated that the agency “is fully authorised to conduct [a] mini exam series from July 26 to August 6, subject to all approved/notified Covid-19 SOPs existing for ‘A’ level [exams]”.
In a second tweet, Mahmood said the pandemic had “created immense difficulties in all walks of life but [e]specially in education”.
“We have been taking difficult decisions to ensure that education/learning continues. Every decision has pros and cons but for us the interest/welfare of students is always paramount,” he added.
In late April, the education minister had announced that no examinations would take place in the country until June 15 as Covid-19 cases and deaths were on a rise.
He had also announced the postponement of O and A level exams that had already started and said the exams would now take place in the October-November cycle. However, the government had allowed A2 exams to be held at the time to facilitate the students who wanted to appear for the purpose of applying to foreign universities.
Mahmood had said at the time that the decision to postpone exams was taken to address the “health concerns of students and parents”.
The decision had come after widespread calls from students, activists and politicians for the government to cancel the Cambridge exams in view of the third coronavirus wave.
Separately, the Balochistan education department suspended summer vacations in those areas experiencing cold weather after modifying the schedule of short and long-term holidays.
The education authorities in Balochistan changed the schedule of short and long duration vacations of schools across the province. Following the decision, the short holidays of school students were suspended in specific areas that will experience cold weather.
In a notification, the authorities stated that the summer vacations in the said areas will not be observed from August 21 to 31 in schools.
Moreover, the summer vacations were also reduced up to 15 days in those areas having hot weather conditions as the annual holidays will be observed from June 1 to July 31.
It is pertinent here to mention that last week, NCOC had issued directives regarding the reopening of educational institutions in areas with over 5 percent positivity rate, wherein the communique directed federal and provincial governments to avoid reopening of educational institutes in such areas on May 24 as scheduled.
“The concerned authorities should be issued directives in this regard by the provinces,” it said while clarifying that schools, colleges, and universities will only be opened in areas with less than five percent contagion rate as decided during an NCOC meeting.
The educational institutes in hotspots will remain shut until June 6 and a meeting to review the decision and reopening of schools and colleges will be held on June 3, the letter had read.
Some 52 districts including federal and provincial capitals of the country have been reporting over 5 percent of positivity ratio, a report read.
In Punjab, 20 districts registered over 5 percent positivity rate, followed by 14 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 12 of Sindh, four in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and one in Balochistan.
Islamabad has also reported a positivity ratio of over 5 percent, a benchmark set by the NCOC to be achieved before lifting Covid-related restrictions.
All districts of Karachi have witnessed over 5 percent positivity rate, followed by Hyderabad, Badin, Dadu, Jamshoro, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sukkur and other districts.
In Punjab, Lahore, Dera Ghazi Khan, Faisalabad, Gujrat, Multan, Lodhran, Rahim Yar Khan, Okara, Sargodha, and other districts have reported higher positivity rate.
Peshawar, Abbottabad, Buner, Charsadda, Dir, Mardan, Nowshera, Swat are among the key districts of KP that have reported a higher ratio of Covid-19 cases.
