Students of the federal government’s educational institution are finding it difficult to cover the syllabus in due time period, in the wake of a five-day working week. Talking to APP, Professor Rajab Ali, a lecturer at Federal College of Education H-9, said the decision of two holidays was taken a week ago and the college had not received any notification so far, for increasing the college timing to take extra classes. The students were already observing tight study schedule due to extension in summer vacations in wake of Eid and the month of Ramadan and now they have to put extra efforts to handle lengthy class works.
Last year, the FDE had issued a unified circular for all its institutions to increase the timings and should opt for this practice this time as well, so that students can better prepare for exams after covering the syllabus properly. Director Model Colleges Tariq Masood said a notification for increasing half an hour and marking Friday as full working day had been issued for the model colleges on Tuesday and other institutes would receive it in a day or two.
Shagufta Mahmood, a teacher at Islamabad Model College for Boys (IMCB) F-8/4, said, “We have received directives to take extra class for half an hour to ensure completion of syllabus.” The college timing in morning has been changed from 0820 hours to 0750 hours and Friday will be full day instead of half, she said. A senior lecturer of a government college, Professor Tahir, said most of the private sector educational institutions were already observing two holidays in a week so these would be not be affected by the decision.
The real impact will be felt by the government schools and colleges with the five-day week as the reduced days in colleges will make it difficult for students to complete their courses. The teachers are already hard pressed because of the lengthy syllabus and they don’t even have a choice to leave some of its portion as it could come in the examinations, he added. The students have a concern that they will get less time with their teachers and they are already following a tight schedule to cover all the subjects.
Hassan Shahid, a student, said the examination boards would not accept the excuse that the syllabus could not be covered because of any untoward situation. “Therefore, we have to complete the syllabus whatever the situation is.”
“The leading private institutions can even afford to launch web portals to offer courses to the students online to cope with such a situation but such an idea has never come under discussion at the public sector institutions because of limited resources,” he said. A professor at a college, Zahid Shah, was of the opinion that the government should take steps to increase power generation instead of changing study schedule of the students.
He said opening of schools and colleges would not make much impact on the consumption of electricity, as air conditioners were not being used these days. The teachers, who work on daily wages, are also unhappy over the decision of reduced working days as they will not get one more day salary.
Five-day week makes it difficult to cover syllabus
