ISLAMABAD: The federal government is mulling over to reopen educationalinstitutions across the country in three phases starting from January 25.

A final decision will be taken in a meeting of an inter-provincialconference scheduled on January 4 to be attended by all provincialeducation ministers. Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood will bechairing the meeting.

In this connection, it has been suggested that in the first phase, primaryschools in both the public and private sectors should be reopened fromJanuary 25, 2021, while in the second phase, middle and secondary schoolsshould be reopened from February 4.

Moreover, secondary educational institutions were proposed to be reopenedin the third phase.

It has been learnt that decision on reopening of educational institutionswill be taken on the basis of health advisory keeping in view theprevailing coronavirus situation across the country.

The agenda of the meeting has a proposal to conduct board examinations fromthe last week of May.

The proposals regarding reduction in summer vacation and start of the2021-22 academic session in August will also likely to be discussed in themeeting of the education ministers.

On November 23, the federal government had announced to shut alleducational institutions from November 26 to December 24 due to a spike inCOVID-19 cases.