Life in the educational institutions will come back to normalcy as the Punjab government has restored the old school timings in all educational institutions of the city after receiving complaints from the parents and students. Schools will open on old timings from this Monday. Heads of educational institutions have also taken sigh of relief after a spell of strict instructions, warnings and implementation of dengue preventive measures.
Initially, the Punjab government directed the administrations to open schools at 9am for a month, however after the hostile response of public and school administrations, the decision was reversed. Traffic mess witnessed in the city due to the overlapping of school and office timings, whereas office going parents faced problems as well owing to the clash of timings.
Schools Secretary Aslam Kamboh told Pakistan Today that the order of changed school timings was being lifted as all sorts of preventive measures had been taken. He said the inspection teams would continue to check necessary measures taken by the school administrations against dengue virus.
Branches of two schools, Lahore Grammar School and Lahore School of Arts and Sciences (LACAS), were sealed on Wednesday when the students of the respective schools were found wearing half sleeve shirts. Students and teachers of a private school also accused the inspection teams of harassing the school staff and said that the police should not have the authority to kick out teachers and students from the schools.
A LACAS student said the police wanted to kick out the staff and students from the schools but due to the staff’s resistance, the police failed to do so.
A citizen, Haseeb, said the restoration of school timings proved the government’s incompetence to control traffic. He said proactive measures should be taken after involving all the stakeholders in order to avoid humiliation.
Lahore Education Executive District Officer (EDO) Pervez Akhter denied inspection team harassing the students and said that the purpose of raids was to ensure a dengue-free environment of the educational institutes. He said that LACAS and LGS were closed for just one day and now all the city schools were open. Around 400 schools were not allowed to reopen after they failed to take necessary steps, but now they were open as well, he said. The EDO added that CDGL fumigated schools, which could not afford fumigation.
According to the directions of the Punjab government, educational institutions must ensure anti-dengue spraying besides ensuring cleaning of school building and premises, removal of unserviceable furniture, broken flower pots, garbage, debris, proper maintenance of toilets, sewerage system and water taps, cutting of grass and removal of water from the premises. Students’ parents had been instructed by the Punjab government to ensure that their children wear full sleeve shirts in schools.
Beaconhouse School System Regional Director Ali Raza lashed out on the Punjab government, saying the schools had not yet received the notification about restoration of school timings. He said that changed timings did not help the cause of the citizens due to the traffic mess.
Punjab govt gives up, restores old school hours
