The governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday announced summer vacation for schools in the two provinces from July 1.

Meanwhile, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) said summer holidays in Islamabad's schools would be observed from July 18 to August 1.

Earlier today, it was reiterated in a meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) that the federating units had the discretion of planning summer holidays in their respective educational institutions.

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A notification issued by the KP Elementary and Secondary Education Department said all government schools in the province will remain closed between July 1 and July 11 for students of kindergarten to class 8.

Students of grades 9-12 will continue their classes for preparation of their board exams as per schedule.

Cadet colleges and private schools in KP have been allowed to determine whether they want to close schools for the summer or not, the notification said.

The decision to announce the summer vacation was taken on the directions of the provincial education minister in view of "rising temperatures in the province", according to a tweet by the KP Information Department.

Punjab School Education Minister Murad Raas, meanwhile, announced that summer vacation for schools will start on July 1 and last until August 1.

"In these times of vacation, my request to all the children and their families is to follow SOPs issued by the government," he tweeted.

Earlier, Raas had suggested summer vacation in all schools of the province from July 2 to Aug 2, while NCOC members in their last meeting proposed holidays from July 18 to Aug 1.

The Punjab government had earlier changed the timings for all private and public schools to between 7am and 11:30am due to the extremely hot weather that had gripped the province.

Sindh has yet to take a decision regarding summer vacation for schools, the provincial Education Minister Saeed Ghani told Dawn.com.

Meanwhile, All Pakistan Private Schools Federation (APPSF) President Kashif Mirza said it was impossible to compensate the educational loss of students of 18 months caused by the Covid-19 pandemic by closing down educational institutions.

He also announced that students were allowed to attend school in casual dress rather than uniform.

Mirza said the decision was taken in view of extreme weather conditions and announced that the institutes that had the facility could conduct online classes.

With additional reporting by Imtiaz Ali.