ISLAMABAD: National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) has decided to close all the educational institutions from Thursday in view of surge in Coronavirus cases.

Its meeting held in Islamabad on Monday with Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar in the chair. It was attended amongst others by the provincial education ministers.

The final approval of NCOC's decisions will be given by the National Coordination Committee headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Later briefing the media about the decisions taken at the NCOC meeting, Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood said the students of schools, colleges, universities and other learning institutions will not come to schools till 24th of next month. During this period, there will be online home learning for the students.

The Minister said the winter vacation will commence from 25th December and continue till 10th January next year.

Shafqat Mahmood said a review meeting will be held in the first week of January to decide the future course of action. He, however, was confident that the education activities will resume from the 11th January 2021. 

The Minister for Education said all the examinations scheduled for the month of December have been postponed.

About the board exams, he said these will now be held in May and June next year.

Shafqat Mahmood said the vocational education involving practical work will continue.  He said the tests for recruitments will also be held as per the schedule. He said those pursuing PhD as well as the research scholars can visit their institutes and labs.

The Minister said there will be one third occupation in the hostels.

Special Assistant on National Health Services Faisal Sultan said the virus positivity ratio over the last twenty four hours has remained over seven percent. He said the decisions taken at the NCOC were important to check the spread of the virus.