Pakistan announced on Friday that all secondary and higher secondary level schools in the country will reopen from January 18. Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said this at a media briefing after a high-level meeting of education ministers from provinces and education experts. “We have decided to reopen schools and colleges for students from class 9-12 in the first phase. Primary and elementary schools and institutions of higher education will reopen from February 1,” he said.

He said initially it was decided to reopen primary and elementary schools from January 25, but the decision was delayed for a week and the ministers would meet again next week to review the situation before opening the schools. The minister also announced that no student would be promoted without examination this year unlike the promotions granted last year.

The announcement came as 2,417 new cases of coronavirus were reported across the country after tests of 49,359 people during the last 24 hours. According to latest statistics by the Ministry of National Health Services, 45 people died due to COVID-19 during this period, taking the total death toll to 10,863. The number of positive cases has surged to 514,338.

All educational institutions were closed on November 25 last year due to a surge in the number of the coronavirus cases during the second wave of the pandemic. Initially, it was decided to reopen them on January 11 but the decision was delayed for a week. Earlier, all educational institutions remained shut from March 16 to September 15 last year due to the pandemic.