SWELTERING heat coupled with unbridled power outages have made students' lives miserable, particularly of those studying in public-sector schools that usually lack basic facilities like clean drinking water.

A number of schoolteachers have complained that it is becoming impossible for children as well as teachers to stay in classrooms during loadshedding. There have been reports of children having fainted in classrooms.

Punjab Teachers' Union, Lahore's Rana Liaquat Ali said a couple of days ago three girls had fainted in a school in Cantonment. “There is no proper facility of water storage as well as making available cold clean drinking water to school students,” he said. He said toilets were filthy and most of them had become non-functional. He said a vast majority of children came to schools without breakfast and faced difficulty in sitting in classrooms.

The eatables or drinks available at school canteens were unhygienic and substandard. Paying capacity of students studying in public schools is another problem that keeps them under-nourished.

As the intermediate annual examinations are in session, the students -- both appearing for the examination and those studying in schools – are at a loss. Those appearing for their examinations complain that the power outages have affected their performance.

Many schoolteachers say the board had set up examination centres in various government schools and occupied classrooms. The students were either compelled to sit in the shades of boundary walls in the open or sit in the already over-crowded classrooms.

Executive District Officer (Education) Muhammad Pervaiz Akhtar admitted that the situation was quite serious for children and said he had directed all schools' headmasters to close schools at 12 noon instead of stretching it to 1pm or 1:30pm.

However, schoolteachers say the EDO's verbal orders are not being implemented in letter and spirit.

Lahore board's Controller of Examinations Prof Manzoorul Hasan Niazi says the board had thrice requested the Lesco officials that it should consider the problems of students sitting their annual examinations and schedule loadshedding after examination hours.

The Punjab University students under the banner of Islami Jamiat Tulaba staged a protest demonstration and blocked Canal Road for about an hour.

The Punjab School Education Department is indecisive whether it will go with the academic calendar and close schools for summer vacation from June 1 and re-open schools after Aug 14 or close schools from June 4 and re-open after Eidul Fitr.

THE Government College for Women, Gulberg, organised a ceremony to celebrate the 60 years of Pakistan-China friendship this past week.

The college students staged skits, sang national songs and performed on Pak-China friendship song – Pak Cheen Dosti Zindabad. A large number of students and faculty members as well as two Chinese guests attended the function. The students were dressed in cultural dresses of Pakistan and China.

The college management also organised a quiz competition to test students' knowledge about Pak-China friendship history. The competition was won by a team of students from Government Ayesha Degree College.

Government College for Women, Gulberg, Principal Parveen Qamar, Chinese guest Joanna Sun Guo Li and Government College, Township, Principal Dr Ijaz Butt talked about Pak-China friendship in the historical perspective.

Dr Butt stressed the need for using human resource to grow as a strong economy as was done by China. It is only because of qualified and trained human resources that China was emerging as new superpower of the world, he said.

Ms Qamar said language was the biggest hurdle in establishing strong people-to-people contacts in China and Pakistan. She laid stress on establishing Chinese language teaching centres across Pakistan. She also highlighted the need for faculty and student exchange programmes with Chinese universities.

Delivering her speech in Urdu, Ms Li said people of Pakistan were very hospitable and caring. She said her stay in Pakistan had removed misconception that it was not a safe place.

SIX universities in Punjab are being run on an ad hoc basis for the last three months as the Chief Minister and Governor's secretariats have locked horns over appointment of vice chancellors.

The Search Committee had finalised interviews of shortlisted candidates and forwarded panels of three candidates for each university to the Chief Minister's Secretariat for selection of the most suitable candidate.

The chief minister had reportedly so far forwarded recommendations for the appointment of three VCs.

The Governor's Secretariat has reportedly returned the chief minister's recommendation stating that it was governor's prerogative to appoint vice chancellor. The governor's objections have still not been received by the Punjab government and the case of such an important subject is lying pending.

INSTITUTE of Social and Cultural Studies, Punjab University, Director Prof Dr Muhammad Hafeez has been appointed as Dean of Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences. The seat had gone vacant after the retirement of Prof Dr Mugheesuddin Sheikh. — mansoormalik173@hotmail.com