KARACHI, Dec 24: The Sindh directorate of private institutions has issued show-cause notices to 53 private schools for defying the provincial education department steering committee’s decision concerning the winter vacations.

According to director of the provincial private educational institutions Mansoob Hussain Siddiqui, monitoring teams of the directorate on the complaints of parents have issued show-cause notices to 53 private educational institutions so far, as they were found open during the holidays.

Terming the non-observance of the winter vacations by the private educational institutions ‘an open violation of the provincial education department steering committee’s decision and the academic calendar’, he said that the directorate had already prepared a list of all such schools and a summary was being sent to the education department for suspending their registration.

“In fact, it is mandatory upon all private educational institutions to strictly abide by the education department’s academic calendar to the letter, or else those violating it may not only lose their registration with the directorate of private institutions but also their recognition by the examining boards concerned,” he warned.

He said that the education department had already announced that schools and colleges across the province would observe the winter vacations from Dec 22 to 31 and they would reopen on Jan 1, 2009.

Date extended

The Board of Secondary Education Karachi has extended the date for submission of forms of SSC-II annual examination-2009, Science and General groups (both regular and private), till Feb 7, 2009, adds PPI.

The forms will now be accepted without a late fee up to Jan 5 and with a late fine of Rs200 from Jan 6 to Jan 12. A late fee of Rs500 will be charged from Jan 13 to 20, Rs1,000 from Jan 21 to 28 and Rs1,500 from Jan 29 to Feb 7, according to an announcement made on Wednesday.

KU admission office open today