Shafqat Mehmood shares 'agreed proposal' for winter vacation in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood on Tuesday shared the "agreed proposal" for winter vacation in schools across Pakistan.

Mehmood tweeted the proposed dates following a meeting of the federal and provincial education ministers which was convened to discuss whether or not to reschedule the winter break.

"Federal and provincial secretaries met today. The agreed proposal was that winter holidays should be from Dec 25 to Jan 4," the minister wrote.

He said that further notifications in this regard will be from the concerned governments.

Earlier, a statement by the spokesperson of the education ministry had said that the final decision will be taken by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) tomorrow.

According to the statement, recommendations were sought by all provincial ministers during the meeting, which was presided over by Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Federal Education and Professional Training Wajiha Akram.

Meanwhile, sources told Geo News that Sindh, which has already announced winter holidays in all educational institutes from December 20 to January 1 and which was set to resume academic activities on January 3, will put the matter before its provincial steering committee.

The sources added that except for Sindh, all other provinces were in agreement regarding the revised dates.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson  for the education ministry said that all provinces and text book boards were directed to publish the cabinet-approved political map in their books.

Books in different provinces were published with different maps, it was observed.

Yesterday, a notification issued by the education ministry  stated that the 34th meeting of Inter Provincial Education Ministers Conference (IPEMC) will be held today to discuss various matters, including vaccination of children between the ages 12 and 18, and shifting of winter vacations to January 2022.

Sources privy to the matter said that the government wanted to defer the winter vacation till January so that the ongoing vaccination drive could be completed.