Govt mulls reopening educational institutions from Jan 25

ISLAMABAD: The federal government is mulling over to reopen educational institutions across the country in three phases starting from January 25, ARY News reported citing sources.

A final decision will be taken in a meeting of an inter-provincial conference scheduled on January 4 to be attended by all provincial education ministers. Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood will be chairing the meeting.

In this connection, it has been suggested that in the first phase, primary schools in both the public and private sectors should be reopened from January 25, 2021, while in the second phase, middle and secondary schools should be reopened from February 4.

Moreover, secondary educational institutions were proposed to be reopened in the third phase.

Read: Right decision to close educational institutions: Shafqat

It has been learnt that decision on reopening of educational institutions will be taken on the basis of health advisory keeping in view the prevailing coronavirus situation across the country.

The agenda of the meeting has a proposal to conduct board examinations from the last week of May.

Also Read: ‘Formal education policy’ on the anvil: Shafqat

The proposals regarding reduction in summer vacation and start of the 2021-22 academic session in August will also likely to be discussed in the meeting of the education ministers.

On November 23, the federal government had announced to shut all educational institutions from November 26 to December 24 due to a spike in COVID-19 cases.