A security guard stands alert at the entrance of a school in Islamabad which has added barbed fencing on it walls. PHOTO: ONLINE
QUETTA/ PESHAWAR/ ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE/ KARACHI: Schools across the country are set to reopen today (Monday) after an extended winter break in the aftermath of a brutal massacre at a Peshawar school.
Students of the Army Public School – the site of the Dec 16 terrorist attack – will resume their studies at the institution with mixed feelings.
In a bid to stave off the possibility of more such attacks, schools across the country were directed to heighten their security and thwart attempts by militants to overrun these institutions.
Similarly, all public educational institutes of the capital, along with a majority of the private schools and colleges, will resume their educational activities today after the winter vacations were extended from December 31 till January 11 due to security concerns.
The capital administration along with police has augmented security measures by conducting an audit of 355 of 422 schools being operated by the Federal Directorate of Education.
Of the capital’s higher education institutes, only NUST will open its campus a week later while the rest will resume education activities on Monday
In Punjab, winter vacations were also extended till January 11 for all schools to bolster security following last month’s attack on the APS. The provincial government instructed schools to raise boundary walls and place two-foot barbed wire on top of them.
Meanwhile, scores of parents of students at public schools in Multan staged a demonstration on Sunday, urging the government to guarantee their children’s safety at campuses.
Similarly in Sindh, schools are set to resume academic activity from January 12 (today) after an unusual extension in the winter break.
Schools in northern and central Balochistan will remain closed as winter vacations in the province end in March due to the extreme weather conditions of the province.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 12th, 2015.
COMMENTS (5)
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What a descent. Plunging into a black hole, with no end in sight. Schools are not safe, mosques are not safe, streets are not safe, there is no electricity, gas is finished, education system destroyed, PIA destroyed, Railways destroyed, JI is calling for an Islamic system; the policies of 80s and 90s have wreaked havoc on the country. Does anyone have solution besides talk?
First of all there use to be no security at schools in the country, except one or two Chowkidars on the main entrance gate.
Now governments wants to heighten security across the board. Heightening security does not mean that schools should employ armed guards from private security companies who do not know how to use the arms when it is required.
In cases were banks were robbed, there were number of precedents iwhere either the arms guards do not know how to operate guns and in most of the cases these armed guards were the one who helped bandits in looting the banks.
To be more precise in elaborating my views on school security, it means security of all educational institutions were children irrespective of their ages go to study that include colleges and universities, including day and night coaching centers.
An educational institution should not only be protect from the main enterance only but it's all the four walls should be protected by barbed wires, CCTV cameras, burglars alarms and trained armed guards who should be capable to use arms when it becomes essential in case of a terrorist attack.
I strongly believe that the Government should not take any risk with the innocent lives of the children; extending the winter breaks further could be an option to settle down the security threats and parents should cooperate in this stance with the school administration and government-I sincerely appeal to the government to allow the schools to re open only once the threat level is minimal.