Education institutions reopen

LAHORE:Public and private schools reopened across Punjab on Tuesday after six months. The first notification regarding closure of schools in the province was issued on March 13 and subsequently the closure was extended because of growing coronavirus cases.

As the schools are being reopened in a phased manner, the schools were allowed to resume classes for grade 9 to 12 on Tuesday. In the second phase, the schools would be allowed to add classes for grade 6 to 8 from September 23, while in the third and the last phase schools would resume classes for grade 1 to 5 from September 30.

In Lahore teams of District Education Authority (DEA) visited a number of public schools to check implementation of SOPs. During these visits heads of two different schools including CDG High School, Chungi Amer Sidhu and Govt ND Islamia High School Ichra were suspended for not following SOPs issued by the Punjab government. Meanwhile, public and private sector colleges and a number of universities also reopened on Tuesday.

notification: Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department (P&SHD) has notified opening of educational institutions from Class 9th and above in the province subject to adoption of Standard Operating Procedures SOPs/ guidelines.

The order shall come into force immediately. According to notification, in consonance with the decisions made in the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers' Conference and in exercise of powers under Punjab Infectious Diseases (Prevention and Control) Ordinance 2020, PS&HD, with the approval of Chief Minister, Punjab, ordered to allow educational institutions imparting education to Class 9th and above (High Schools, Colleges, Universities, Academies, Tuition Centres etc.) and their consonant educational institutions imparting religious as well as technical and vocational education and training to operate from 15th September, 2020 subject to adoption of SOPs/ Guidelines.