LAHORE: The closure of schools in Punjab may be extended according to the provincial education minister Murad Raas on Tuesday.
During the opening ceremony of the retirement system for teachers of the province, the education minister said that schools in Punjab may be closed for an extended period given the coronavirus situation.
“I want to open schools,” he said. “However, we may have to go with the option of extending the closure of schools, given the current circumstances,” added the minister.
“A joint meeting of all education ministers will take place on January 4 where the decision to extend schools closure or not will be taken,” he added.
Last month, the federal education minister announced that schools across the country will remain closed until 10th January 2021 due to the rising coronavirus cases.
The Punjab Education Minister said that the provincial government had suspended the examinations for class 5 students according tot he assessment policy. “When it came to the exams of fifth graders, teachers were helping students cheat,” said Murad Raas while explaining the reason behind the decision.
In addition to this, he said that the Private Schools Act will be sent to the cabinet for approval. The education minister said that the legislation will get government’s nod within three months.
Furthermore, he added that said that a “Child Education Book” had been launched which met international standards in quality of education.
In other news, three cases of the new coronavirus variant that first emerged in the UK have been detected in Karachi according to the Sindh Education Department.
Read more: 3 cases of new coronavirus UK strain detected in Karachi.
