• While many institutions followed the notification, many completely ignored it
• Some parents found nothing wrong with old timings, others only too happy to send their children to school later than usual

KARACHI: Noting that many schools, including a few elite ones, have completely ignored the School Education and Literacy Department’s directive on new start-time for schools, the department has issued them with stern warning letters.

Under the notification issued over the weekend, all public and private educational institutions in Sindh were asked to switch to 9am as the start of school time for two weeks due to the prevailing cold wave.

Many schools followed the order, but several schools completely ignored the notification.

Ac­cording to Additional Dire­ctor Registration, Professor Rafia Javed, all private schools are bound to implement the notification.

“Any school violating the guidelines issued by us for the two weeks will see action taken against them,” the official warned. “You are disobeying Education Minister Sardar Shah here,” she reminded.

Parents divided over new timings

While the directive from the Sindh government regarding revi­sing school start timings sounded considerate, it has met with mixed reactions during the first week.

Many parents find nothing wro­ng with the old timings while some happily accept the new schedule.

“The issue is not the cold wave. It is the problems that children and parents face in the cold,” one little girl’s father told Dawn.

“For starters there is the gas shortage. The geyser turns off during the nightlong gas loadshedding and it takes a while for the water to heat up after turning the geyser on. The gas is still not back when the children are getting ready for school. They wash their face and brush their teeth with ice cold water. There is no gas for them to even have breakfast. They will fall ill like this, we worry,” he pointed out.

“So the delay by one to one-and-a-half hours gives some respite,” he added.

Then the first day of sending his child to school at 9am made the same father think again. “My daughter returned home at around 5pm. She is tired. She is hungry since she missed lunch but now she is too tired to even eat. This is a huge inconvenience,” he regretted.

Other parents, too, whose children had to stay in school for longer because classes started late and therefore ended late, were also unhappy. One school ran polls in their class Whatsapp groups for the parents to choose between the old timings and the new ones. With a majority there opting for the old timings in view of the classes being moved forward causing extended school hours, the school reverted to the old timings after observing the new timings for one day.

“I don’t find anything wrong with the old timings and am glad that my children’s school ignored the government order. I mean, why disturb routine?” Said the mother of two middle school children of an elite school in Saddar, which also happens to have a couple of campuses in Clifton. “Sometimes, my children also go to school earlier than the normal time for sports activities. And the gas problem has already been remedied with LPG cylinders,” she said.

Adjustments

Still, all schools didn’t wrap up school later due to starting late. They all made sure that school finished at regular time, no later. “I’m glad that school is starting slightly later,” said Mr Peter, who has three children in St Anthony’s High School. “My daughter is very responsible and has no trouble at all in getting ready for school in the mornings but my two sons simply refuse to get out of bed in the cold,” he said.

“We adjust the class periods so that they are shorter in order to end school on time,” said the Principal of St Patrick’s High School, Reverend Father Mario Rodrigues. “Since our school has two shifts, we better finish on time or it will affect the second shift timings,” he added.

Another father picking up his daughter from The Smart School also said that he was also appreciative of the government directive and his child’s school to begin at 9am.

However, some parents, especially those who drop off and pick their children to school themselves, complained about some problems. “We were caught up in the office traffic in the morning. It got quite chaotic,” one of them shared with Dawn.

The Founder and Principal of the CAS School, Sami Mustafa, said that they already have standard timings in place for winter, even before the government notification. “For the Play Group, our timings are 9.15am, for KG to Class 2, it is 9am and for the Senior Section, it is 8.45am. It has been like this for all the years that I can remember,” he informed. “Our winter timings commence from the first Monday of December to go on till the first Monday of March,” he added.

“I simply don’t understand why other schools don’t shift timings for summer or winter? They are not written in stone. Taking off five minutes from each period to make sure that school finishes on time despite a later start doesn’t hurt anyone. No school activity is disturbed in our school this way,” he said.

Meanwhile, one private girls school in DHA Phase 1 with two shifts got so confused over the new timings issued by the government that they simply decided to close school as extra winter vacations to get out of the timings debate altogether.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2026