IN an abrupt move, School Education Department Punjab has announced annual
winter vacation for the private and public schools across the province from
December 19 (today).
According to a notification which is available with The News, the winter
vacation will be observed in all the public and private schools from December
19, 2014 to January 2, 2015 and the schools will reopen on January 3.
It is pertinent to mention here that January 3 is Saturday and almost all the
private schools observe Saturdays as weekly holiday. So now the private schools
will reopen on Saturday, January 5, 2015.
It is also important to mention here that as per holidays’ schedule of School
Education Department every year the winter break is observed from December 24 to
December 31.
Many private schools representatives said that Secretary Schools Abdul Jabbar
Shaheen, who himself runs a school under a trust ignoring that most of the
private schools were holding examinations these days, abruptly announced the
winter break.
They further said most of the private schools had scheduled their exams as per
earlier notification according to which annual winter vacations were to start
from December 24.
It is generally observed that unlike summer vacation; most of the private
schools observe winter vacation as per schedule of the Schools Department.
Therefore this abrupt move is most likely to receive criticism from private
schools as well as parents of the students.
However, sources in the department said the winter break was announced against
the earlier notified schedule in the wake of Peshawar school attack so that
maximum security measures could be ensured at schools during this period.
The News could not reach Secretary Schools Abdul Jabbar Shaheen despite repeated
attempts on his official cell-phone.
Meanwhile, Higher Education Department has announced the winter vacation for
public and private colleges starting from December 20, 2014 to January 09, 2015.
However, many universities, including Government College University (GCU), have
announced winter break starting from Friday (today).