ISLAMABAD: Public and private schools in Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province will remain closed from May 25-31 due to a heat wave expected to last until the end of the month, the provincial education department said on Monday. 

Pakistan’s disaster management authority warned last Thursday temperatures in certain areas of Pakistan’s southern Sindh and eastern Punjab provinces could surge to 40 degrees Celsius between May 15-30. On Sunday, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) warned of an “intense” heat wave in the southern districts of Punjab, with severe risk identified in Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Multan districts from May 21 to May 27.

“In view of the surge in temperature and heat wave in the province, all public and private schools shall remain closed for seven days with effect from 25th May 2024 to 31st May 2024,” a notification from the provincial education department read, adding that exams could be conducted during these days with necessary precautions in place. 

Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikander Hayat shared the notification on social media platform X, saying the safety of children would always remain the government’s “priority.”

The PDMA’s Sunday statement urged citizens to take precautionary measures. 

“Avoid exertion and exercise in strong sunlight,” it said. “Do not step out of the house unnecessarily. Wear light colored cotton clothes.”

Increased exposure to heat, and more heat waves, have been identified as one of the key impacts of climate change in Pakistan, with people experiencing extreme heat and seeing some of the highest temperatures in the world in recent years. The South Asian country of more than 241 million, one of the ten most vulnerable nations to climate change impacts, has also recently witnessed untimely downpours, flash floods and droughts.

Climate change-induced extreme heat can cause illnesses such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heatstroke, and hyperthermia. It can make certain chronic conditions worse, including cardiovascular, respiratory, and cerebrovascular disease and diabetes-related conditions, and can also result in acute incidents, such as hospitalizations due to strokes or renal disease.

According to the Global Climate Risk Index, nearly 10,000 Pakistanis have died while the country has suffered economic losses worth $3.8 billion due to climate change impacts between 1999 and 2018. A deadly heat wave that hit Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi, the capital of Sindh, claimed 120 lives in 2015.

In 2022, torrential monsoon rains triggered the most devastating floods in Pakistan’s history, killing around 1,700 people and affecting over 33 million, a staggering number close to the population of Canada. Millions of homes, tens of thousands of schools and thousands of kilometers of roads and railways are yet to be rebuilt.
 

ISLAMABAD: The federal education ministry has rebuilt a school bombed by suspected militants last week in Pakistan’s northwest and it will open for classes today, Monday, state-run APP news agency reported.

Two girls schools were bombed in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province this month. The first attack targeted the only girls school in the town of Shawa on May 8 while the second school was bombed in an overnight attack last week in the neighboring South Waziristan district.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who have targeted girls schools in the province in the past, saying women should not be educated.

The TTP group was evicted from northwest Pakistan’s Swat and other regions in recent years after successive military operations and believed to be harboring in neighboring Afghanistan. The TTP are a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. The Taliban takeover of Kabul has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban, Islamabad says.

“Tomorrow (Monday), we celebrate the resilience of our daughters and the nation’s commitment to education,” APP said, quoting the education ministry, adding that 120 girls would be back to the classroom on Monday morning.

“This act symbolizes resilience, defiance against extremism, and a firm commitment to providing education for all, especially for the daughters of the nation.”

Similar attacks also took place in May last year when two government schools for girls in Mirali were blown up. No loss of life was reported in the incidents.

Pakistan witnessed multiple attacks on girls schools until 2019, especially in the Swat Valley and elsewhere in the northwest where the Pakistani Taliban long controlled the former tribal regions. In 2012, the insurgents attacked Malala Yousafzai, a teenage student and advocate for the education of girls who went on to become the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize.