One could not have imagined that the state of education would be so disturbing that a stage has been reached when the concerned authorities are unable to decide the duration of summer vacations for educational institutions. Are ego battles being fought between the dissenting officials and decision makers? After all this does happen in our system, in other fields. Positions are hardened to such an extent that they begin to hurt the public, and society bleeds eventually.

I had been wanting to focus on the theme of summer holidays for some weeks now. It is a lovely concept, summer holidays. It can mean lazy sunny days and leisurely afternoons. It can mean relaxation and rest, but above all certainty of schedule. The central question that has bothered many of us is whether our children spend their summer vacations usefully; whether they get the recreation they need, they deserve; and whether there is anything that the educational institutions could themselves come up with.

This point about educational institutions could themselves come up with programmes and propositions that would interest and even excite students in their summer vacations is perhaps asking for too much. Those whose business it is to take correct decisions on time have failed to do even this elementary job. So let’s forget about that. Weather it is the education system, the syllabus, the examinations, the medium of instruction, there are so many unsettled issues in such a pivotal sector as education. Strange, neglected society.

Now what has happened this summer is that there is a persistent uncertainty about the duration of the summer holidays. They began with a uniformity, that is the first of June 2006. And while the federal education ministry has declared that schools will reopen on 15th of August 2006, the private schools have said that they are seeking to reopen on the 1st of August 2006. Why this uncertainty? What difference will these 15 days make?

That is the question that is being talked about. And if public opinion is something to go by, the general impression is that the private schools have a financial interest in making the schools reopen earlier. The image of private schools in this society has never been a favourable one, and most parents resent the fact of how much and how often private school managements charge fees under different heads.

Of course, school managements don’t care. Or care two hoots, as says one parent who complains that the private school where his son is enrolled charges quarterly fees instead of every month. He asked, “but we are salaried people and we do not get paid on a quarterly basis.” I asked him about the schools reopening issue, and he agreed that what the private school managements were worried about was the tuition fees for the month of August 2006. He said that they had no other interest but this.

I suggested that the private schools were interested in the forthcoming Independence Day celebrations. That with the opening of schools on 1st August would enable the institutions to prepare for 14th August, and give the students the rehearsals they require. He rejected this argument, and said that only financial motives and interests were paramount .Nothing else. I heard him in worried silence.

I spoke to other parents, Roohi and Syed Ghazanfar Habib, about the reopening of schools. They said that the schools their child went to was going to open on the 10th of August. But they said that they were aware of the confusion and that there was nothing that could be done about the ‘time line and the tuition fees structure’ in the case of the private schools. There has been so much protest and criticism of the way in which private schools and their owners operate, but there are no systems to regulate them.

Syed Ghazanfar Habib sounded very disappointed with the way the private sector schools have been functioning in this society. I asked him for some details when he said that in the last two or three years, the school that his son goes to has raised its tuition fees alone by 60-70 per cent. That is truly a staggering amount, I observed. He said that his son's tuition fees was Rs2,800 and has been raised to Rs6,000 per month. This does not include other charges like those of science laboratory, sports facilities, etc. He added that he had recently paid quarterly fees which came to Rs29,000.

I heard him and it was natural that my mind went back to my school days, in the early ’60s. Te school fee that I paid was less than Rs20 per month. Obviously the comparison is not a fair one, but it does serve the purpose of illustrating a point.

But let me return to the point about the confusion of when will the schools reopen. Parents and children are both troubled. Their planning, howsoever little it may be, has suffered.This makes one ask the question: “What has this summer been like for students in the town? They have taken the nightmare of power failures from April to June, and they took their annual examinations in that state of agitation and harassment. The city underwent the Nishtar Park bomb blast tragedy and this month, the shocking death of Allama Hasan Turabi in a suicide attack.

The young must surely be wondering what kind of a world they are growing up in. And look what some TV channels did by showing live images of the blood and gore that was emanating from the scene of the assassination.

This makes one contemplate how much television children can watch in this society, as the number of channels grows. There is so little of option for students on how to spend their summer vacations or any spare time. So, is TV the best option? Cartoons and or whatever.

On the subject of summer holidays, it is not just unfair to give little schoolchildren uncertainty and suspense, but it is downright cruel. A Karachiite was angry, and rightly so, as he demanded that at least for creating this confusion and mess, the guilty and the inefficient be taken to task .It is amazing how the incompetent and the insensitive get away in this society.