In a major announcement, the Punjab government has announced an extra weekly holiday for all private and government schools.
As part of the effort to mitigate smog in the provincial capital, Commissioner Lahore Muhammad Ali Randhawa decided to close schools every Wednesday “until further notice”.
Additionally, the school staff has been ordered to work from home.
Furthermore, markets, banks, private institutions, clubs, and hotels are also expected to remain closed. According to the announcement, Lahore will witness a full shutdown every Wednesday.
Last week, the Lahore High Court (LHC) had directed to halt all new construction projects for 6 months, from October to March, due to the concerning level of air pollution.
Update:
In contrast to the media reports earlier, government of Punjab has stated that no decisions have been finalized at this point. “We had an insightful discussions with a panel of experts regarding SMOG reduction,” it said in statement.
The experts made various proposals, which will be thoroughly examined “and deliberated upon during the upcoming Cabinet meeting.” The government of Punjab added that the Air Quality Index (AQI) is under control due to the recent rain. However, the plan for maintaining and improving the AQI will be determined after the Cabinet meeting.
the smog is rarely dangerous this is a good decision for students
Yes
Absolutely Right
Fix the cause of smog, rather than making students go without a day for studies.
There should be Saturday and Sunday off for every school in Pakistan regardless of smog or not.
There is also an urgent need to legislate and ban the use of private vehicles for pick and drop and allow only school vans. Every morning and noon there is a mess of traffic jams and mostly one car came to receive only one student that also burn useless amount of fuel and contribute in smog factor.
Public transport needs to improve. The biggest reason parents won’t choose this option is that vans are cramped and v unsafe
Wed should definitely be off for students. The world is moving towards modern, self directed learning.
As a Muslim’s country, Friday should be off instead of Wednesday… Govt should be consider