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Schools ill-prepared for cold wave
Karachi, Feb 07, 2008: The attendance in schools both government as well as private was
thin on Wednesday as mercury dropped to six degrees celsius in Karachi. Most of
these schools lack proper heating arrangements for the class rooms.
Most
of the public school administrations announced a half day on Wednesday as the
window panes in several classrooms were broken. Even the doors of the classrooms
have not been fixed.
Unfortunately, most of the public sector schools
have no proper roofs - students were forced to study under the open sky in the
harsh winter.
It may be mentioned here that previously, local funds
under the head of scouts, game fund that was collected by the students, has not
been taking place for the past two years. Each school was being given Rs170 per
anum per child for petty works, such as the maintenance of building and other
issues. This has not been used as well either
The cold North Westerly
winds across the city are an unusual feature this year. This is the reason why
the education department is not prepared to deal with such
emergencies.
Karachi, where both summer and winter, never changes
drastically, has experienced extreme weather in both seasons. However, with the
changing climate all over the world, the city also remains in the grip of strong
winds. Thus, schools should be renovated as soon as possible.
However,
when the Caretaker Minister for Education, Shujaat Beg, was contacted, he said
that for now, he has issued directives at the administrative level to "paste
newspapers cuttings on the broken windows" and has also called meeting of the
officials of the works and repair department.
Sources in the education
department, however, said that the minister is probably unaware of the rules
regarding this because these petty issues are solved by the School Management
Committee (SMC) and not by the works and repair department. The minister also
said that he had ordered the issuing of funds to the works and repair
department.
The cold winds, according to meteorological department, will
continue to blow till February 11. Thus, students must be prepared to deal with
a challenging few days as during this period, it will be impossible to carry out
renovation. Once the cold wave ends, winter will officially end as well.
Inside sources, however, said that with the summer approaching, the
education department should proceed with the work regardless, as the power in
most of the schools is cut off due to the non-payment of bills. The News
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