Covid-19: Lahore education authority announces new timings for schools

(Karachi) As students gear up to resume academic activities in educational institutions across Punjab from June 7, the Lahore District Education Authority has notified timings for nursery to intermediate classes, local media reported on Friday.

For girls, the classes from nursery to the middle will commence at 7:15 am and will close at 11:15 am. The timing for classes of matriculation and intermediate would be from 7:15 am to 11:45 am.

Meanwhile, the classes from nursery to the middle for boys will commence at 7:30 am and will close at 11:30 am. The timing for classes of matriculation and intermediate would be from 7:30 am to 12:00 pm.

Under the new guidelines, the educational institutions will be permitted to hold classes with 50 percent strength while no student will be allowed to attend the school for two consecutive days.

The education authority also stated that there will be no lunch breaks in schools. The authorities have urged the administration of the educational institutes to ensure the observance and compliance of Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs).

On June 3, Punjab Education Minister Murad Raas said that all schools in the province, may it be private or public, would reopen from June 7.

He said the vaccination centers would inoculate the teaching and non-teaching staff of both public and private schools, noting that there are 16,000 teachers and 4,000 non-teaching staff in Lahore.

The federal government had last month decided to open educational institutions in the districts with less than five percent coronavirus positivity rate from May 24.