KP govt revises school timings due to soaring temperatures

PESHAWAR: As prevailing heatwaves continue to batter various parts of the country, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government Sunday changed the school timings while revealing the dates for summer vacations citing "extreme heat" in the province.

Under the revised timings, schools in KP will now open at 7am instead of 8am. Students of the primary section will get off at 11am, whereas middle, high and secondary schools will close at 12pm.

"School timings have been changed due to extreme heat," the KP Education Department said reflecting on government's decision.

Furthermore, the government has also announced summer vacations for primary schools which will be observed from June 1 till August 31.

Meanwhile, middle, high and higher secondary schools will have holidays from June 15 to August 31.

However, the schools located in relatively cooler areas will have summer vacations from July 1 to August 31, the Education Department added.

The KP government's announcement comes days after Punjab announced a seven-day holiday for schools because of scorching heat.

Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar announced the holidays in a post on X. The minister shared a notification, stating that all the public and private schools would remain closed from May 25 to 31.

“Viewing parents’ opinion and intensity of the weather, we have decided to give the holidays from this week,” he said.

The government also revised the school timings from 7am to 11:30am from Monday to Thursday, while they will open at 7am to close at 10:30am on Fridays.

However, the provincial government's announcement of summer vacations in the province from June 1 to August 14 was rejected by the All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association (APPSMA) which demanded permission to allow the schools to function between 7am and 10am from June 1 to June 15.

This was followed by the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi's (BIEK) announcement to defer the intermediate exams for five days.

The exams, initially scheduled to commence on May 22, will now take place from May 27 (tomorrow).