Academic year: Government rules on July-August summer vacations

Matric schools prefer being off during Ramzan, Cambridge schools June-July.

KARACHI:

Educational institutes in Sindh will schedule their summer vacations from July 1 to August 31 this year, said Chief Minister House in a notice on Friday.

The Matric and Cambridge system schools have been at odds with each other over the matter, with the former demanding July and August and the latter urging for June and July.

Matric schools prefer vacations in the holy month of Ramzan, a demand that first surfaced in 2010 through the Anjuman Punjabi Saudagran. Next year, in 2011, the demand was reiterated by government and private schools.

A steering committee of the education department subsequently decided on July-August but almost all Cambridge schools criticised the decision. Their academic session has always begun August 1 and ended in May. June and July were feasible months for their vacations and coincided with the Cambridge O’ and A’ Level exams.

Given their demand, the chief minister turned down the steering committee’s decision and kept June 1 to July 31. However, private Matric system schools were assured by education minister Pir Mazharul Haq that the vacations in 2012 would consider Ramzan.

It seemed that the Cambridge schools would win again however, as on February 8, the steering committee was going to rule in their favour. But then Sharfuz Zaman, a member of the committee and the chairman of the Private Schools Management Association that represents Matric schools, dug his heels in. He reminded the education minister of his promise. Pir Mazharul Haq then directed the education secretary, Muhammad Siddique Memon, to send a proposal for July-August to the chief minister for approval. It came through yesterday, on May 18.

Zaman told The Express Tribune that he had received confirmation over the phone from the education ministry. He appreciated the decision and argued that if the vacations were kept at June-July, schools would not just get two months off but would also get around 20 extra days due to Ramzan. As expected, the Cambridge schools have already issued their circulars, some as early as May 2, that the vacations, like always, will be held in June and July. Muniza Waseem, who is the regional academic coordinator of The City School and headmistress of its Gulshan-e-Iqbal junior campus, estimates that 60% of parents have already made their plans and bookings.

“It is almost impossible for us to follow the (July-August) decision since the ongoing session is about to end,” said Waseem, adding, however, that a final decision would be made by Monday.

She explained that since the Matric schools were already into a new session from April and thus it isn’t a problem for them to follow July-August. This was not, however, the case with Cambridge schools as their results were scheduled for June 4.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2012.