LAHORE: Punjab Minister for School Education Murad Raas says that the children would be given graded homework during the closure of schools from Nov 26 till Jan 10.

Announcing that all the 120,000 public and private schools of the province would be closed, he gave a suggestion that promotion to next classes should be conditional to submission of homework and MCQs examination that should carry equal marks. He said the grades would be based on the quality and amount of the homework.

Mr Raas stated this while addressing a press conference at the Quaid-i-Azam Academy for Educational Development here on Monday.

Murad Raas spells out details of exams

The examinations for grade 1 to 8 would be held in March while the exams for 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th classes could be held in May or June, the minister said and added that all the provincial boards would have to decide about holding examinations for the intermediate and secondary education.

Mr Raas said teachers should come to schools for two days a week, 50pc of them should be present on Monday while the remaining on Thursday, saying that they would have to deal with issues of school administration and other related matters.

Mr Raas said he had requested that the government should also mention in the notification of schools closure that the children should not be allowed entry to the parks, markets, picnic points and other recreational points also.

“If you want to curtail the Covid-19, closing only schools will not bring about any results.”

Replying to a query, the minister said they would hold a meeting in the first week of January again to decide whether the opening of schools on Jan 11 would be safe or not.

Replying to another question, Mr Raas said they had not decided anything about the private schools fee issue yet but would soon issue directions after consultations.

Replying to another question about the private schools announcement that they would not go for closure, the minister warned that such an action would be considered challenging the writ of the state.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2020