LAHORE: Punjab Minister for School Education Murad Raas on Tuesday hinted at extending schools closure due to the coronavirus, saying that the decision in this regard would be made on Jan 4.

He was addressing a ceremony at the launch of the online portal for the retirement of the teachers at the Quaid-i-Azam Academy for Educational Development.

While talking about the issue of schools being closed throughout the province, he said he was not in favour of closing schools but the schools might remain shut for an extended period because of the pandemic situation in Punjab.

Mr Raas said the pandemic had wreaked havoc on children’s education and a joint meeting of all education ministers would take place on Jan 4 where the decision would be made on the future strategy regarding schools closure. He said the decision of suspending Class-V examinations was taken after an assessment where they found that the teachers were helping students in cheating.

The minister informed the meeting that the Private Schools Act would be sent to the Cabinet for approval and the legislation would be passed within three months. He said private schools could be registered online and 31,000 private schools had been registered through the online system.

He said the online portal for the retirement of the teachers of the province was launched and the teachers’ retirement cheques could be deposited directly into their accounts from the next year.

Mr Raas also tweeted, “Today for the First time School Education Department Punjab launched the Online Portal for Retirement of Teachers. No more bribery, no safarish from anyone and a complete transparent system.”

The educational institutions were closed in the country till Jan 10, 2021, during the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference last month.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2020