Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat has dismissed rumours circulating on social media that schools across the province would be given extra holidays because of smog, telling parents and students that classes will continue as scheduled. The minister said no decision had been taken to grant additional holidays, and he urged families to ignore unverified messages and wait only for announcements from the education department.
The clarification came after messages began spreading online claiming that the provincial government was about to announce extended school closures in response to worsening smog. The posts, shared widely in parent groups and on messaging apps, suggested schools would shut for several extra days. Rana Sikandar Hayat rejected those claims outright. All educational institutions will continue their academic activities as normal, he said, dismissing the reports as false.
In a post of his own, the minister put the message in plain terms for parents who had been asking whether to keep their children at home. All schools are open and operating as per schedule, he wrote, asking the public to avoid fake news. The education department has issued no notification about extra holidays, and no school has been directed to close early or extend its break.
The rumours took hold because the air over Punjab really has turned dangerous again. Lahore has once more topped the list of the world’s most polluted major cities, with the city recording an air quality index of 453 on the IQAir scale. Readings from individual monitoring points were far worse, with an index of 706 at the CERP office, 690 in Allama Iqbal Town and 639 along Burki Road near Paragon. A day earlier, on November 10, Lahore recorded an average air quality index of 303, described as very unhealthy, while Multan was reported to have touched 971. With figures like these in the news every morning, it is not hard to see why many parents assumed a closure was on its way.
Yet the provincial government has decided against closing schools and colleges, and it is not planning restrictions on market timings either. According to The Express Tribune, the Environment Protection Department has not submitted any proposal for closing educational institutions or imposing a lockdown in markets. Officials point to a reported decline in smog levels and forecasts of rain over the coming days. The department said smog levels in October were 33 percent lower than during the same month last year, while a separate survey indicated a decline of 27 percent. Experts said smog levels generally continued to rise until November 15, after which they began to decline, and officials expect a further gradual improvement after that date.
The government is also pointing to enforcement work already under way. Deputy Director Environment Lahore Ali Ejaz said that, on the directions of Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, more than 30 factories involved in tyre burning had been shut down and fined. Tyre burning is one of the local sources of the thick smoke that hangs over the province in winter, alongside vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions and the burning of crop residue in fields. Officials say the lower October readings show the anti-smog campaign under Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif is having some effect, even if the air in Lahore remains unhealthy on most days.
There is another reason the rumours found such a ready audience. Punjab has closed schools because of smog before, and parents remember it well. In previous years the government announced smog-related holidays in cities such as Lahore and Multan when air pollution reached hazardous levels, and in November 2023 it declared a four-day public holiday in the Lahore, Gujranwala and Hafizabad divisions, closing schools, offices, markets and restaurants on the advice of the health department. That history means that whenever the smog thickens, families begin watching for a similar announcement, and a single forwarded message can look like official news.
The confusion has been made worse by uncertainty over the regular winter holidays. As of November 10, the Punjab government had not issued a notification about the winter vacation schedule for 2026, and students and parents are still waiting for the official dates. Reports suggest the holidays could begin around December 21 or 22, but no final notification has been issued, so those dates remain unconfirmed. Until the education department announces the schedule, schools are running on their normal winter timetable, with single-shift government schools generally beginning at 8:45 in the morning and closing at 1:30 in the afternoon from Monday to Thursday, and at 12:30 on Fridays.
For parents, the minister’s message settles the immediate question. There will be no extra holidays this week, and children are expected in class as usual. Any change will come through an official notification from the education department, not through a forwarded message or a social media post. The episode is a reminder of how quickly an unverified claim can travel when it matches what people already fear. The smog itself remains a serious problem, and the government says it will keep watching the readings day by day, but for now the schools of Punjab stay open.
