With rising temperatures and intensity of the weather, Punjab government announces closure of schools for students all over. Initially, in order to tackle the effects of the weather, they proposed that summer vacations will start from the 1st of June. Private schools however collectively rejected this scheme claiming that this was too early. Additionally the government has also altered the school timing with off-time at 11.30. Correspondingly, schools are already falling short on time and therefore they opposed the prospects of ending school year earlier than usual. In negotiation, they suggested that the government allows continuation of school till 15th June while cutting off-time to 10am. “Closing schools in the name of extreme heat or cold has become routine,” the association said. Further they demanded that summer camps be allowed for class 10 and 11 for limited number of hours.
Consistent with this, the government has now announced a holiday from May 25-31. They stated that this decision has come forth keeping in mind parents’ concern of the extremely hot weather. However, opening of private institutes for a limited number of days is being allowed for the sake of exam completion. Furthermore this examination will be conducted with “necessary precautions to ensure the safety of students”. Prior to this, strict protocols were instructed to be followed including: ensuring that fans are functioning properly, water coolers are available, and no student is made to sit in an open area or school lawn during the summer.
These new directives are primarily being given in response to the heatwave prediction. The Pakistan Meteorological Department has indicated that high atmospheric pressure is expected to lead to heatwave conditions across much of the country, particularly in Punjab and Sindh, starting from May 21. Moreover this heatwave is expected to hit its peak from May 23-27.
