Islamabad

The leading private schools of the city have announced extension in vacations as they were unable to fulfil the security measures ordered by the government in order to ensure the safety of the students, while the parents seems concerned over the current situation which is adversely affecting the studies of their kids.

Now the new date for opening of the schools has been given 9th of November and the students have been assigned homework in order to lessen the academic loss that they are facing due to the closure of schools.

The leading private schools which were scheduled to open on Monday (today) had sent messages to the parents of its students on Saturday evening informing them about the extension in vacations saying that they were taking extreme security measures in the wake of security threats to the educational institutions.

The message regarding the extension in vacations perturbed the parents of the students. “What kind of security arrangements they are trying to make for the last one month?” asked a mother of two kids studying in a leading private institution.

She said the closure of school was causing huge academic loss to the students while the administration of the school seems unaware of it. For what we are paying to school if we are to teach our kids by ourselves, she asked.

She said that the span of one month was more than enough to make security arrangements besides the administration could not ensure foolproof security to a school, which was facilitating hundreds of students.

Another parent Mustafa Yawar said that if the other schools could continue their studies then why not a few of these schools could. “Every time they call parents to collect the homework for their kids. Why are they collecting fee for?” he said.

Yawar said that the parents were asked to submit Rs50 few months back as the administration were to issue security pass but it never happened.

According to the media reports the private schools were ordered by the special branch of the police to adhere to the strict security standards which include verification of security guards deployed at schools, stickers for school vehicles and office cards for the employees. It also advises that school boundary walls be minimum eight feet high.

The prescribed security measures also include arms licences to all owners of schools for security purpose. Schools concentrated in one area should jointly arrange security. Walk-through gates are mandatory for schools where student enrolment is over 1,000. Other schools shall place scanners at entry points. The schools should also install CCTV cameras. These security arrangements would be monitored by area police officer and magistrates.

The management of the private schools on the other hand seemed perturbed over the situation as the security arrangements prescribed by the police cost dearly to them.

Talking to ‘The News’ an official of a leading private school said that the demand of extreme security measures by the private organisations was just unfair.

“The cost of walk-through gates starts from Rs30,000 while the other arrangements including private security guards, purchase of their weapons and security cameras and raising boundary walls maximum eight feet is also very expensive,” said the official.

Meanwhile Private School Network President Afzal Baber said that majority of the private schools would start functioning from Monday while a big number of schools have already been opened.

“The Franchise schools which are not more than five in numbers are not opening but they neither contribute in literacy rate nor they have any significance in mainstream educational system,” he said.

According to Baber, leading private schools were not opening because they have already collected their fee for four months in advance and they are not at all in hurry to complete their syllabus.

“If they were to collect fee in the month of November they would have completed the security arrangements,” he said while adding that the huge money they were grabbing in the name of fee is quite enough to make security arrangements.