Unscheduled holidays

The holidays that crop up suddenly make it even harder for school administrators to keep things on course.

Everywhere in the country, but perhaps most notably in Sindh, schoolchildren have rejoiced over the unscheduled holidays in January this year — and also the previous month. These children are, of course, too young to realise what harm is inflicted by these unexpected closures, on work, on business, on studies and on the scheduling of exams. It certainly seems the number of holidays has been on the rise, creating all kinds of chaos and much disruption for everyone concerned. As far as education goes, the number of working days in our schools is already among the lowest in the world. The holidays that crop up suddenly make it even harder for administrators to keep things on course — while for shopkeepers, businesspeople and others, things are even harder to manage.

This month, we had closures due to Dr Tahirul Qadri’s Long March, violence and subsequent mourning days such as those announced in Karachi after the shooting of MQM MPA Manzar Imam, and on other occasions when an ‘urs’ or other event is suddenly deemed to warrant a holiday. Schools and colleges in Islamabad remained closed, at least for two days and in some cases longer, over the Long March and in anticipation of possible trouble. In Lahore too, as well as some other cities along the route of that procession, a holiday was declared — though only sporadically observed. In Karachi, the shooting of Imam led to yet another ‘bund’, again depriving people of a working day and in many cases, of interactions with partners overseas.

More such occasions have come up due to suddenly announced holidays, or else because people have been unable to reach workplace or school because of violence on the roads. The situation is having an immense impact on the efficiency — or lack of it — with which our country functions. Something needs to be done to keep people at work more often and allow them to earn livelihoods without such frequent and unexpected disruptions in the process.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2013.