RAWALPINDI:
A high-level committee formed on the orders of the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court has finalized recommendations for a province-wide academic calendar comprising 190 working days in schools and colleges across Punjab.
The proposals include reducing summer holidays from two and a half months to six weeks or one and a half months.
The committee held three meetings over the past four months and presented its joint recommendations at the third meeting. Under the new proposals, educational institutions in the province will observe a total of 175 public holidays in a year, while the total number of teaching and academic working days will be fixed at 190. All private school associations in Punjab have agreed to the proposed framework.
Punjab School Education Department Special Secretary Muhammad Iqbal has directed PECTA and the Director of Public Education (Secondary and Elementary) to formulate a uniform academic calendar of 190 working days for educational institutions in Punjab within three days, in the light of the recommendations submitted by all members of the committee.
The commission observed that the continuous increase in vacations each year had damaged the academic system, with upper-class programs often remaining incomplete.
The committee was constituted by Justice Jawad Hassan following a petition filed in the Lahore High Court in Rawalpindi against the unnecessary increase in leave in educational institutions in Punjab.
The third meeting of the committee, constituted under the chairmanship of Education Secretary Schools, was held in Lahore under the leadership of Special Education Secretary Punjab Schools Muhammad Iqbal.
Participants included former Punjab Provincial Education Minister and Chairman Pakistan Education Council Mian Imran Masood, APSMA Central Chairman Kashif Adeeb Javedani, North Punjab Chairman Abrar Ahmad Khan, representatives of leading private school chains, Pakistan Education Chamber Chairman Ali Raza and a Deputy Advocate General.
Participants expressed serious concerns over the increase in summer vacations and the recent winter vacations, pointing out that the academic process could have been maintained through adjustments to teaching hours, which was not done.
APSMA President Abrar Ahmad Khan said educational institutions in Islamabad were allowed only 10 days of winter vacation, while in neighboring Rawalpindi, despite improving weather conditions, a full month’s vacation was being given, which he termed excessive.
The meeting proposed a 190-day educational work schedule for schools and colleges in Punjab.
