All work: Schools secy to appear on summer camp plea

Petitioners said there was high risk of students, teachers getting sunstroke.

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday summoned the schools secretary on a petition challenging holding of summer camps for students from grades 5 to 10 during the summer vacations.

Justice Ali Baqar Najfi said that in view of the matter’s urgency the secretary should appear before the court on Thursday (today).

The order was issued on a petition by two teachers and two citizens of Nankana Sahib district, stating that the Punjab schools secretary had issued a notification on May 30, 2012 for public schools to observe summer vacation in Punjab from June 01, 2012 to August 19, 2012. They said the secretary issued another notification on the same date, directing holding of summer camps for classes 5th to 10th from 7am to 10:30am.

The petitioners stated that the weather was extremely hot and in excessive load shedding the students were not attending the classes and parents and other residents of the district had submitted numerous complaints against continuing the summer camps. They said the people were demanding that summer camps should be closed as soon as possible.

The petitioners said that electricity was not available to 50 per cent primary schools in the district and often water was also not available. They said even in the schools where electricity was available unscheduled load shedding posed problems for the students and teachers but it was not possible for the teachers to make adequate arrangements for clean and cold drinking water for the students.

They added that few students were attending classes and many parents were not sending their children to school for fear that they would get sunstroke. A ninth grade student of Government Guru Nanak High School had died from a sunstroke, they said.

The petitioners stated that due to the extreme hot weather the lives of students and teachers were at risk and if the summer camps continued there were high chances of students and teachers falling sick and even dying.

The petitioners complained that the conveyance allowance for teachers during summer vacations had been stopped while the teachers were attending the schools regularly and if holding the camps was deemed vital then they must be given conveyance allowance during the summer vacations. The petitioners requested the court to declare the notification for holding summer camps unlawful.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2014.