Physical education declared mandatory for all Punjab schools

Provincial govt also decides not to fail any students this year to reduce dropout rate

RAWALPINDI: Implementing Prime Minister Imran Khan’s directives, the Punjab government has declared “health and physical education” mandatory for students of all 52,000 private and public schools in the province.

Administration of all primary, middle, high and higher secondary schools in the province have been directed to hold at least two periods (a block of time allocated for lessons, classes in schools) involving sports and physical training every week.

The provincial education ministry has issued a circular to education officers in all 36 districts of the province for immediate implementation of the directives.

According to the circular, cricket, hockey, football, volleyball, table tennis, handball, athletics, gymnastics, cycling, tug of war and basketball, among other sports have been declared mandatory for all schools students.



In this regard, school heads have been directed to provide details regarding sporting facilities at their institutes by March 31, 2019.

The government has also directed them to improve facilities at sports grounds, provide clothing to students and ensure provision of refreshments to participating students at the sporting events.

Meanwhile, the provincial government has also issued a calendar of annual sporting competitions, according to which the sporting year will begin from April 1 while annual sports competitions will be held in October throughout the province – October 1-12 at local level; October 15-20 at tehsil level and October 22-20 at district level.

No one to fail exams this year

Meanwhile, the provincial government has also decided that all students of pre-primary, primary and secondary classes up to grade seven will be promoted to next classes regardless of their performance in annual examinations.



Children found weak at certain subjects will be asked to reappear in the exam and eventually promoted to next classes.

The decision was taken to discourage increasing number of children dropping out of schools due to poor examination results. Students of grade five and six will also be promoted with a steric sign to the next class.

The government is also considering removing the “fail” box from the performance report cards while drafting the education policy for year 2020.