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Government run Schools winter vacations extension demanded

By Zahiruddin

CHITRAL: The parents of government-run schools and colleges have demanded to extend the winter vacations to next month keeping in view the chilly weather followed by the recent snowfall in the valley. Talking to chitraltimes.com, they criticized the education department for deciding to open the schools in the first of February. They said that this year the department had deviated from the normal routine of opening the institutions in first of March for no any cogent reason. They said that the decision of opening the schools in the first of February this year was taken by some officers sitting in comfortable offices in Peshawar without considering the ground situation of hilly areas like Chitral. They said that in most of the thirty six sub-valleys of the district, it is not possible for the children to leave their houses in the month of February due to heavy snowfall. The snow starts melting by the end of the month and that too when the sun shines for many days and no more snowfall occurs. The parents questioned that how a child can learn in an intensely cold room shivering with cold as there is no heating system in the schools. They said that the situation will be tenser in the girl’s schools where non-local lady teachers will not be able to report to their duties while the girls are too frail to withstand the cold waves of winter in the month of February. In the distant valleys of the district like Baroghil, Gobor, Yarkhoon, Laspur, Terich, Golen, Oveer, Phasti and Karimabad, the people mostly go to hibernation in these days and it next to impossible for them to send their children to schools. The parents asked the government to issue notification regarding the extension of winter vacation to save them from the situation of suspension they have plunged into due to the unwise decision of the department. The residents of Chitral recalled that the routine of two months winter vacation has been in vogue since 1940s.