Two weekly offs termed waste of time for students

CHITRAL, June 7: The people of Chitral have termed the weekly holiday on Saturday a futile practice and a sheer wastage of precious time of students.

Talking to Dawn here on June 6, Zar Hayat Khna, president of parents-teachers council (PTC) of a government high school regretted that those at the helm of affairs were totally indifferent to the situation in Chitral while ordering the closure of schools on Saturday.

He said that the second weekly holiday was solely meant to conserve electricity but they did not see to it that almost hundred schools of the district were without electricity. He added that the weather was very pleasant in Chitral and there was no need of electric fans in the classrooms even if some schools within the city had been electrified.

A number of other parents alleged that in practice the schools were closed for three days instead of two in a week because on Friday the schools were shut down well before time for Friday prayers.

They said that the additional weekly holiday had no meaning for upper parts of the district and the southernmost valleys because these areas had yet to be electrified.

“The first quarter of the academic year has not yet taken off properly because the students have recently been provided with free textbooks”, said Mujtaba Khan, who has four children admitted to schools. He said that the curtailing working days of the schools would inflict irreparable loss on the students.

Published by Daily Dawn on June 7, 2010