LAHORE: The Punjab government on Monday announced further seven-day holidays for schools in the wake of scorching heat.
Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar announced the holidays in a post on X. The minister shared a notification, stating that all the public and private schools would remain closed from May 25 to 31.
“Viewing parents’ opinion and intensity of the weather, we have decided to give the holidays from this week,” he said.The education minister said the private institutes conducting examinations would be conditionally allowed to keep them open as it was the top priority of his ministry to protect students from the weather’s intense effects.
The Punjab government on May 17 announced the annual summer vacations for public and private schools across the province. As per the notification, the vacations would be observed from June 1 to August 14.Meanwhile, the Punjab government had also reduced school timings because of the severe temperatures being recorded in multiple cities across the country.
“The schools will open from 7am till 11:30am from Monday till Thursday, while they will open at 7am and close at 10:30am on Fridays,” the notification read. The Pakistan Meteorological Department has said due to the presence of high pressure in the upper atmosphere, heatwave conditions are likely to develop over most parts of the country, especially over Punjab and Sindh from May 21 (today).It added that they will likely convert to severe heatwave conditions from May 23 to 27.