LAHORE: Education Minister Punjab Murad Raas has announced that all private and public schools in the province would reopen from June 7, in a staggered manner.
According to a notification from the school education department, the following conditions will be “implemented strictly” Only 50% of students shall attend classes on a given day and students shall attend the school for two consecutive days.
All concerned authorities shall ensure observance and compliance of COVID-19 SOPs in letter and spirit. The decision according to the notification was taken in line with the recommendations of the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference (IPEMC) that took place a day ago.
NOTIFICATION:
All Public & Private Schools of Punjab to be opened on Monday 7th June, 2021. It will be a “Staggered” approach. Please read the following Notification carefully. It will be implemented strictly. Our teams will be monitoring the situation very closely. Follow SOPs. pic.twitter.com/kC41NwaSV9— Murad Raas (@MuradRaasMR) June 3, 2021
Earlier, Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood had said students of 10th and 12th across the country would be assessed on the basis of elective subjects and math this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
While addressing a press conference after a meeting of provincial education ministers and officials from the education departments, the minister said, “If we do not conduct the exams, then students will not even employ minimum efforts to study.”
He said matric exams will be held only for optional subjects and mathematics, adding that the science group will appear in Physics, Chemistry, Biology/Computer, and Mathematics.
“For Inter pre-medical students Chemistry, Biology, and Physics exams are suggested while for Pre-Engineering group Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics exams are suggested,” the minister informed.
Due to students complain about the lack of time for preparation now the exams shall start on July 10, Shafqat said, adding that no teacher will be allowed in the examination center without vaccination. Vaccination of teachers will be done on a priority basis.
The federal minister said, “We are taking this decision to make the most of the existing situation when coronavirus cases have dropped.”
the committee had also decided that all teachers would be vaccinated before the exams, he added. Talking about the mode of assessment, the minister said that the committee was of the belief that an external examination was the fairest assessment.
He said that A2 exams were also conducted, in which around 30,000 students had appeared from across Pakistan.”The next exams will be held from 26 July to August 6,” Mahmood said.
In addition, those students who will appear for their A2 exams in the October-November session will be considered for provisional admissions by different colleges, he said.
We took some important decisions today Re exams. For 9/10, exam in elective subjects plus math. For 11/12 only elective subjects. Exams pushed to after July 10 with 10 and 12 grade exams on priority. These decisions are final. No change
— Shafqat Mahmood (@Shafqat_Mahmood) June 2, 2021
Earlier, in April, the education ministry had canceled all exams in the country till June 15. The only exception was granted to A2 students, who wanted to appear for the purpose of applying to foreign universities.
At the time, the minister had tweeted that the decision had been taken to address the “health concerns of students and parents”. “All exams cancelled till June 15 and depending on the spread of the disease may even go further,” he had tweeted.
