KARACHI: Academic year to start from August - Change in schedule approved
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, Jan 18: The new academic session for school goers in the province would commence on August 1 this time, with a delay of four months, it was officially learnt on Tuesday.
The steering committee of the education department chaired by the Sindh Education Minister, Dr Hamida Khuhro, on Tuesday ordered that rescheduling the commencement date of the academic session from April 1 to August 1 should be implemented from 2005.
She said a committee would soon revise the calendar of academic activities, including examinations, pertaining to schools and colleges. Secretary of Education Hashim Leghari also attended the meeting.
An official attending the steering committee meeting said the idea of changing the date of commencement was floated by the education minister about two months back.
It was unanimously approved by the meeting participants, as they thought it was in the interest of students of the province and the educational system alike. However, those who have been opposing the idea, still consider that the decision to implement the changes during 2005 was not a thoughtful decision.
They understand that school managements, teachers and school van pliers would find a honeymoon period in the shape of extension in the ongoing teaching session at schools.
Now, students would have to pay additional charges to private schools and the buses and vans for four months for nothing else, but sitting idle at schools, since academic activities for 2004-05 were near to completion.
A Sindh government handout said participants of the steering committee meeting unanimously endorsed the education minister's decision by saying that it would help avert interruption in teaching caused due to the summer vacations of June and July. Now, the academic year would start in August every year.
The sub-committee supposed to finalize the academic calendar of the province will comprise chairmen of the Hyderabad and Larkana educational boards, one EDO each from Karachi and Hyderabad, and a special secretary and additional secretary of the Sindh education department, said a source. The committee would meet on Jan 26, added the source.
When the chairman of an educational board was asked to comment on the development, he said that their role in the meeting was very limited since it was overshadowed by the EDOs, who had already agreed to the idea of change in session commencement.
"Now, it's a decision and we have to adopt the new schedule, despite the fact that it could be troublesome and challenging," he added. A majority of the school management association had already expressed their reservation on the issue.
When contacted, the senior vice-chairman of the Private School Management Association, Sharf-uz-Zaman said that implementation of the steering committee's decision from August 2005 was not a wise step.
"In a situation when neither courses could be split further nor the final examinations delayed, asking parents to sacrifice four months including summer vacations, just for fun, would surely be difficult," he added, saying that parents would surely dislike the whole development.
Meanwhile, due to the steering committee's decision to change the beginning of the academic calendar, the Board of Secondary Education, Karachi, would now have to wait for another 10 days to know whether it should go on with its SSC annual examinations schedule already provided to students, or not.
The chairman of the BSE, Karachi, Brig (Retd) Shafiullah Qureshi, said his board had already announced to conduct the exams from March 1; however, he was now a little apprehensive about that since the steering committee had tasked a sub-committee to reschedule various exams of educational boards as well. "Personally, I feel that the schedule given by us was an appropriate one and hardly required any change," he added.
