Key Takeaways
- Sindh Education and Literacy Department allows private schools to decide their own schedules.
- The directive does not apply to publicly managed schools, which will continue six-day weeks.
- Decision follows a previous government notification on austerity measures.
All private schools in Sindh have been given the flexibility to determine their weekly working days according to their own schedules and convenience. This decision was communicated by the Sindh Education and Literacy Department through a circular issued on Friday.
The new directive, as clarified by Additional Director (Registration) Rafia Javed, states that privately managed schools can manage their weekly working days based on their operational needs. The move comes after an earlier notification from the education department in July 29, which directed six-day working weeks for all educational institutions across Sindh.
In its July 29 notification, the Education and Literacy Department had stated that public and private schools under its administrative control would observe a six-day working week (Monday to Saturday) starting August 1. This directive was issued as part of austerity measures aimed at dealing with economic impacts from the US-Israeli war on Iran.
However, the new circular issued by the Directorate of Inspection and Registration of Private Institutions has clarified that this directive does not apply to privately managed schools. These institutions are now free to decide their own schedules without interference from the department.
The College Education Department also issued its own notification a day later, directing all public and private educational institutions under its administrative control to observe a six-day working week starting August 1.
Despite these changes, there have been concerns raised about the impact on students' education. The Sindh chief minister’s spokesperson told Dawn that teachers had stopped working on Saturdays as well, although this decision was only supposed to apply to students. This has reportedly affected the completion of the annual curriculum and students’ educational progress.
The six-day week was introduced initially to facilitate the completion of the curriculum in a timely manner. However, with private schools now having more flexibility over their schedules, it remains to be seen how this will impact teaching and learning processes.
