Summer camps banned due to ‘intense heat’

Education department says action will be taken against schools hosting activity

RAWALPINDI:

The education department said on Tuesday warned schools against hosting summer camps at their premises during the summer vacations.

The education department has banned summer camps in schools during summer vacations, which started in government and private educational institutions and colleges on Tuesday, owing to the intense heat.

The chief executive officer of the District Education Authority, Yasin Baloch, said that the head of the government school hosting summer camps would face harsh and prompt departmental action. Meanwhile, private schools hosting summer camps will be sealed.

The department has formed committees of senior officers and assistant education officers to inspect schools around the district. These committees have been established in all the tehsils of the city, cantonments, and districts to routinely inspect schools and take action.

Additionally, the CEO has ordered everyone—citizens, students, private school teachers and non-teaching staff — to report any summer camp-related activities in schools. They added that the identities of those providing the information would be kept confidential, and the school in question would face swift action.

He also advised parents not to enrol their kids in summer camps.

Earlier, schools had been granted conditional permission to host summer camps. However, this approval has been revoked in view of the ‘extreme heat’.

Baloch added that there was no information on summer camps being held at schools, but inspections would continue uninterrupted for two and a half months.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2023.