LAHORE: Students at schools across Punjab returned to class in-person as the new term began on Monday following a two-week long winter break across educational institutions in the provincial metropolis due to unrelenting smog.
On December 14, the school education department announced week-long winter vacations for schools across the province from December 24 to December 31.
But in the last week of December, the high court of Lahore directed the province to propose to the department to implement a two-week-long vacation as a step to help curb smog. Previously, on December 7, it ordered a four-day week to achieve the said objective.
Air quality is usually the poorest in Lahore’s winter months of December and January.
Every year, a combination of industrial pollution, burning waste and farm fires in neighbouring India fouls the air in the city, making it one of the world’s most polluted cities. The hazardous pollutants across its skyline cause residents respiratory difficulties, eye irritation, and cardiac complications, among other ailments.
Earlier, parents and teachers demanded an extension in the vacation.
