Punjab Rejects Proposal to Close Schools 3 Days a Week Amid Fuel Crisis

Punjab’s Education Minister has rejected reports that schools could close three days a week for fuel conservation, saying the move would barely save any diesel.

Punjab Rejects Three-Day School Closure Proposal Amid Fuel Crisis

Punjab’s Education Minister, Rana Sikandar Hayat, has pushed back against reports that schools across the province could be closed three days a week as part of fuel conservation measures tied to the ongoing Middle East crisis.

Hayat confirmed that no formal proposal or notification for a three-day school week has actually been received by the provincial education department, calling much of the circulating information unverified.

Why He’s Against Closing Schools on Fridays

The minister specifically pushed back on the idea of adding Fridays as a school holiday, arguing it wouldn’t meaningfully reduce fuel consumption in the first place. His reasoning: more than 90% of students in Punjab’s government schools travel to school on foot rather than by vehicle, and a similar share of private school students do the same. Closing schools for an extra day, he said, wouldn’t produce any significant drop in diesel use or other operating costs, since most students aren’t driving to school anyway.

Hayat has urged the federal government to exempt the education sector entirely from any broader fuel-saving restrictions, arguing that any such decision needs to account for the practical realities of students and schools, not treat education the same as offices or businesses that can more easily shift schedules.

This Isn’t the First Disruption This Year

This isn’t Punjab’s first brush with fuel-related school disruption in 2026. Earlier in the year, amid a broader fuel crisis, Punjab had actually implemented a four-day teaching week, with schools, colleges, and universities closed on Fridays and classes running Monday through Thursday. That arrangement was later reversed, with regular five-day teaching restored.

The current controversy stems from a federal-level review of fuel-saving options, including a proposed “smart lockdown” model under which government offices would operate four days a week. Hayat’s comments make clear that, as far as Punjab’s education department is concerned, schools shouldn’t be treated the same way as offices when it comes to these cutbacks.

The Real Stakes for Students

For parents and students, the practical takeaway right now is straightforward: there’s currently no confirmed Punjab government decision to close schools for three days a week, and Punjab schools are operating five days a week, Monday to Friday, as usual.

But the broader concern behind Hayat’s pushback is worth taking seriously. Pakistan already has one of the largest out-of-school child populations in the world, and repeated disruptions, whether from COVID-19, smog seasons, extreme heat, or now fuel conservation measures, have chipped away at instructional time again and again. Each lost week tends to hit the same students hardest: those in low-income and rural households who don’t have learning support at home to fall back on when school doors close.

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