THE Punjab government has developed the practice of closing down schools almost a week after they open following the winter break.

This decision applies to even those institutions which are not as much affected by cold or fog/smog.

One wonders how the coldest of regions in the world function in temperatures going down below 30 degree Celsius. One also wonders how we survived in the days when we had no gas, no inverters and no blowers.

We have never had closure of schools in any kind of adverse weather. Be it rain, hail, storm, snow or heat, we went and have survived.

Why is Punjab the only province that is affected by temperature variations?

Is it only schoolchildren, school teachers and its administration who suffer from weather? What about colleges, universities and offices? Do they live in some special weather conditions? Is closure of schools the only solution? Can’t we change our schedule of school and start winter vacations later than end December? Don’t we have enough closures owing to strikes, law and order situations, etc?

When will we take rational decisions? When will we stop playing with the future of our children? When will our policymakers look into these issues seriously?

Or would it continue like change of syllabus every now and then, from uniform syllabus to the old one, from changes in examination systems and reverting to the one in practise?

O, Quaid, this is not Pakistan you had envisaged! We apologise!

Prof (Dr) Shazra Munnawer
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2020