A committee set up on the directives of the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court has recommended a standardized academic calendar requiring schools and colleges across Punjab to complete 190 teaching days each year.
As part of the proposal, the committee suggested cutting summer vacations from the current two and a half months to a shorter period of six weeks. The committee convened three times over the last four months and finalized its recommendations during the third meeting.
Under the proposed plan, educational institutions in the province would observe 175 holidays annually, while the number of academic and instructional days would remain fixed at 190. Private school associations across Punjab have endorsed the proposal.
Following the recommendations, Punjab School Education Department Special Secretary Muhammad Iqbal directed PECTA and the Director Public Instruction for Secondary and Elementary education to prepare a uniform academic calendar within three days.
The committee observed that the growing number of holidays each year has negatively affected academic performance, particularly in senior classes where course syllabi often remain unfinished.
Justice Jawad Hassan constituted the committee while hearing a writ petition at the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench that challenged the increase in holidays in Punjab’s educational institutions. The committee’s third meeting took place in Lahore under the chairmanship of the secretary schools education and was presided over by Special Secretary Muhammad Iqbal.