LAHORE: All public and private schools in the province were reopened after two and a half months of summer vacation on Thursday.

The students and teachers would settle back into their routines by marking the official end of summer vacation.

In Lahore, the schools were reopened restoring the vibrant atmosphere of educational institutions. Though the first day of school saw fewer children than usual, those who did attend appeared eager to reunite with their classmates.

Punjab School Education Department (SED) revised the schedule ahead of the reopening of schools aiming to accommodate the changing weather conditions and ensure the comfort of students and staff. According to the new timings, schools will now operate from 8am to 1:30pm while 8am to 12pm on Friday.

Meal programme in three dists from next month

According to the Punjab Education Board, female teachers in government schools will also have two days off per week, and their working hours will also be adjusted. The duty hours for female teachers have been reduced by 30 minutes as they will be allowed to leave at 2:30pm instead of the previous time of 3:00pm. This decision was made considering the difficulties faced by the female teachers.

Meanwhile, there will be one weekly off for male teachers as they will attend the schools on Saturday from 9am to 12 noon despite holiday for students.

Punjab Minister for School Education Rana Sikandar Hayat announced that a meal programme would be launched in public schools starting next month. He said initially, the meal programme would be rolled out in three districts of south Punjab. In the first phase, children in the schools of DG Khan, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur will be provided with milk and meals, after which the programme will be gradually expanded to other districts.

He said a survey conducted by his department revealed that children in these districts were found to be mentally and physically weak. He said milk and food would be provided to meet the nutritional needs of students in these districts.

Mr Hayat said all public school students would benefit from the school meal programme.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2024