Islamabad, Feb 25 (IANS): Pakistan Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood on Thursday announced that all the schools would reopen for regular 5-day classes from March 1.

In a statement issued on Twitter, the Minister said that schools will resume regular 5-day classes from Monday.

"Restrictions imposed in some major cities on schools to conduct staggered classes was only till February 28," he added.

Mehmood said that the announcement applies to every educational institution in the designated cities where restrictions had been imposed, Geotv reported.

He clarified that all the educational institutions will continue to observe the normal Covid SOPs such as physical distancing, mask-wearing and ensuring hand washing facilities.

In January, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), after a detailed discussion with all stakeholders, had decided that students in Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore and Peshawar would attend classes with 50 per cent strength on alternate days due to the coronavirus cases in these cities.

Educational activities in all the regions - at the primary, middle and university level - had resumed with strict compliance with Covid-19 SOPs from February 1.

The forum had decided to reopen the education sector with strict recommendations of staggered classes for three days a week in the urban centres, in light of the higher coronavirus positivity ratio reported there.