No change in vacation schedule: CM

KARACHI, May 22: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has announced that the schedule of summer vacation in schools and colleges will remain unchanged.

However, he added, he had not yet seen the summary of the education department`s steering committee`s recommendation for revising the timetable.
The chief minister stated this on Sunday in reply to a question at a press conference on his return from a five-day visit to South Korea.
“The vacation period remains the same as that of last year [June and July],” he said. In the same breath, he added, “The summary containing the education department steering committee`s recommendation that the summer vacation be observed in July and August was sent to him when he was away from the country and, as such, he has not yet seen it.”
As soon as private TV channels broke the news, a number of students, parents and teachers — mostly belonging to private schools — hailed the decision. They said the chief minister by making the announcement had saved them from revising their vacation plans, which they had made much before the steering committee`s recommendation. They added that they would not need to cancel train and air tickets they had purchased for spending holidays with their relatives living abroad and in other parts of the country.
Welcoming the chief minister`s announcement, students calling from different parts of the city said that the decision had saved them from going to schools in June when temperature usually touched its peak.
It was on May 7 when the education department steering committee at a meeting with Senior Minister for Education Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq had recommended that summer vacation in schools and colleges be observed in July and August to avoid holding classes in Ramazan when teaching hours are shorter.
But only a week later, the education minister allowed schools being run under the Cambridge system of education to continue with their previous schedule of summer vacation when a representative delegation of the schools expressed their inability to implement the steering committee`s decision on the plea that their examinations and courses were linked with the Cambridge University.
However, the relaxation given to these schools was bitterly criticised by chairman of the All-Private Schools Management Association Syed Khalid Shah, who was of the opinion that there should be no discrimination between the schools being run under the Cambridge system of education and those being run under the matriculation system.
Mr Shah had hailed that the steering committee`s decision, saying that the schools by following the new schedule for summer vacation would be able to avoid holding classes in Ramazan, falling in August.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the Jamaat-i-Islami criticised the chief minister`s announcement about keeping the vacation schedule unchanged this year. The party stated that the chief minister should have respected the decision taken in view of Ramazan.