Half-holiday: Low attendance seen at schools, govt offices

The teams gathered the [survey] data and they found out that teachers were present, but students were not there

PESHAWAR: Attendance was low at educational institutes and government offices of the city.

Locals said majority of private schools remained closed on Thursday, while government institutes were open, albeit with a few students.

Government employees told The Express Tribune that attendance was thin on Thursday — the first working day after Eid holidays as people had not yet returned from villages. Thursday was not only the first working day after the holidays, but was also the third day of Eidul Azha.

"I enquired and found out that offices at the secretariat were empty. Those who came to work on the first day, left early," said Dr Bushra, who is the deputy director of the local government department. “We have been seeing this for a long time that nobody attends schools or offices on Eid day.”

She added the federal and provincial governments need to understand this and announce a four-day holiday for Eidul Azha. In some government schools, teachers sent the students back home when they saw just a handful in attendance.

At a private school in Peshawar, only 12 out of 750 students showed up on the third day of Eid.

Empty classrooms

The education department carried out a survey on Thursday morning in which the monitoring teams visited educational institutes to enquire over the attendance of teachers.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Director Rafiq Khattak said the teams gathered the data early in the morning and found that teachers were present, but students were not there.

“We cannot do anything about it as it depends on the [students’] parents to send their children to school or not as it was the third day of Eid.”

Simi Khalil, a government teacher, told The Express Tribune many people perform the ritual of sacrifice on the third day of Eid. “My students had told me beforehand that they will not come [to school]. The government should provide a four-day holiday for Eidul Azha.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2016.