Schools reject winter break extension

Official urges relevant authorities to withdraw notification

HARIPUR:

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private Education Network (PEN) has rejected the education department's notification regarding the extension of winter vacations and has urged the authorities to review their decision.

In a statement, Provincial President for PEN Muhammad Saleem Khan highlighted that decisions made by education department officials in their offices are detached from ground realities. He cautioned that such decisions could potentially jeopardise the future of the nation’s children.

He stated that according to law, a student requires at least 240 days to complete the entire syllabus in an academic year, however, matriculation students already have only 126 days to complete the syllabus after the gazetted vacation while an intermediate student has merely 91 days. As a result, students suffer the most, he added.

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Moreover, the decision to hold this year's annual matriculation exams one-and-a-half months earlier has led to another challenge for students and their parents, he said adding that there seems to be a contradiction in conducting matriculation examinations 'on time' under the new system while simultaneously increasing the number of holidays.

Moreover, he highlighted the rationale behind justifying the extension of holidays by citing teachers' involvement in the election, even though teachers in private schools are not part of the election process. He argued that there's no valid reason to apply holidays to the private sector. Additionally, he proposed that an easy solution to cope with the cold weather would be to commence school at 9am.

Saleem Khan criticised the decisions made behind closed doors without proper planning and without consulting stakeholders.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2024.