Islamabad: The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has extended summer
holidays of the students of the capital’s government educational institutions
for another week.
Now, the schools and colleges, which were slated to reopen on August 25, will
resume classes on September 1.
The reason is that the shipping containers placed across the city to restrict
the movement of PTI and PAT activists towards Parliament House, where the two
parties have staged anti-government sit-ins for many days, continue to be there.
“There are two major reasons for delaying the reopening of schools. The first is
that children will struggle to reach schools due to blockades, while the second
is that many schools are occupied by police and rangers personnel called in from
different parts of the country to handle the situation caused by sit-ins,” a
relevant official said.
According to him, there are around 520 government schools and colleges in
Islamabad and almost 55 of them are being used to accommodate personnel of
law-enforcement agencies and paramilitary forces. He said after security
personnel left, educational institutions would need some time to ready the
premises for resumption of classes.
Originally, schools and colleges were scheduled to reopen on August 11 after two
months long summer vacation. However, the vacation was extended for one week
until August 18 in light of the anti-government sit-ins in the federal capital.
The FDE delayed the reopening of schools and colleges yet again until August 25
in view of the presence of shipping containers across the city.