Winter camps: Parents want PSRAKP to revoke notification

MANSEHRA: The parents of students on Monday demanded the managing director of Private Schools Regulation Authority Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (PSRAKP) revoked the notification allowing the educational institutions to hold camps for matriculation and intermediate classes during the winter vacations.

“Your order violates the provincial government’s notification of vacations, which mandates school closures throughout the province by December 22. However, you allowed students of matriculation and intermediate classes to attend winter camps in freezing conditions,” Muhammad Saqib Lughmani advocate told reporters here.

Flanked by a group of parents from various schools, he said that the upper parts of the Hazara Division, including Mansehra, Torghar, Upper and Lower Kohistan, Battagram and Kolai-Palas, fall in the winter zone and experience severe cold.

“In such harsh conditions, grades 9, 10, 11, and 12 students cannot comfortably sit in classes. If forced to attend by school management they risk developing respiratory tract infections,” Lughmani added.

He said that the snowfall, which began in mid-November, has intensified the cold, and most private schools lack adequate heating facilities, exposing students to the possibility of severe illnesses.

The senior lawyer said he had formally requested the managing director of the Private Schools Regulation Authority through a letter to revoke the notification issued on December 20, which permits private schools to hold winter camps in the upper parts of the Hazara Division and the rest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “I have also appealed to the provincial minister, and the secretary of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to intervene and ensure the withdrawal of the notification,” Lughmani said.

He said that the intermediate and secondary education board examinations are scheduled for April next year, giving students ample time to complete their syllabus. “If needed, the boards across the province should reconsider their examination schedules,” Lughmani maintained.