The Punjab government has changed the school timings in order to prevent the students and staffers from dengue. The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by the Punjab Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman. According to the decision, the new school timings are from 9am to 3pm. Half-sleeve shirts and shorts have been banned for the students, while dengue virus will also become a part of the curriculum to aware the students about the disease.
Lahore Executive District Officer (EDO) Education Pervez Akhter told Pakistan Today that the meeting’s decisions also covered private schools and reiterated that schools would be allowed to reopen after getting a certificate of taking proper preventive measures against dengue.
Akhter said the government had asked the owners and heads of private and public schools to wipe out stagnant water, fumigate campuses, cut grass and to take other precautionary measures suggested by the government. He said that 162 inspection teams at the level of union council had been formed to check preventive measures taken by the schools.
A copy of the said certificate should be filled after downloading it from the website of the Punjab Schools Department with the signatures of at least three parents. The certificate should be handed over to the inspection team or near any government high school for boys.
Parents of the public school students have shown their displeasure over the decision of mandatory full-sleeve shirts and pants, saying that it would add to their financial burdens and government should provide free-of-cost uniforms to facilitate the students. A father of two public school students, Waseem, said the uniforms for his children would cost around Rs 2,200 and there was no benefit of free schooling with this extra burden.
9am to 3pm is the new school time
