Govt announces closure of all educational institutions from Thursday

Govt announces closure of all educational institutions from Thursday.

Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood made this announcement, while addressing a press conference.

Govt announces closure of all educational institutions

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan accompanied him.

He announced the formal closure of educational institutions across the country till January 10 next year.

In fact, National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) has made this decision in view of surge in Coronavirus cases.

Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar presided the NCOC meeting in Islamabad.

The provincial education ministers also attended the meeting.

Prime Minister-headed National Coordination Committee would give final approval.

Shafqat Mahmood said the students of schools, colleges, universities and other learning institutions will not come to schools till 24th of next month.

During this period, there will be online home learning for the students.

Winter vacation from 25th December

The Minister said the winter vacation will commence from 25th December and continue till 10th January next year.

Shafqat Mahmood said a review meeting will be held in the first week of January to decide the future course of action. He, however, was confident that the education activities will resume from the 11th January 2021.

The Minister for Education said all the examinations scheduled for the month of December have been postponed.

About the board exams, he said these will now be held in May and June next year.

Shafqat Mahmood said the vocational education involving practical work will continue. He said the tests for recruitments will also be held as per the schedule. He said those pursuing PhD as well as the research scholars can visit their institutes and labs.

The Minister said there will be one third occupation in the hostels.

Special Assistant on National Health Services Faisal Sultan said the virus positivity ratio over the last twenty four hours has remained over seven percent. He said the decisions taken at the NCOC were important to check the spread of the virus.

GTV