Staff Reporter
A large number of parents have demanded of the concerned authorities to announce summer vacations for the students of the educational institutions in Islamabad Capital Territory especially early years whose health is at risk due to the sizzling heat outside and prolonged exposure to high temperatures within the classrooms, lacking facility of cooling and clean drinking water.
It has been observed that several students have lost consciousness in different schools of Islamabad while many were unable to attend schools due to the unbearable heat.
Many of the small kids feel the heat and vomit in their classrooms and parents are asked to rush to school and take their kids to a medical facility for first-aid.
A female teacher at Islamabad College for Girls F-6/2 on the condition of anonymity said, “In this hot weather, children are at greater risk than adults for dehydration and heat illness.
Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of consciousness and headache is commonly seen among the students in these days.”
She said that the high officials of Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) and principals of the educational institutions sitting in the air-conditioned rooms cannot be aware of how difficult it is for the students as well as the teachers to manage academic routine in the burning heat of summer. “Fighting the heat itself is a hard challenge for small kids and what to speak of exams”, she observed.
Asad, a student of H-8 College said, “It’s awfully hot in our college and I start sweating when I am just sitting in my class.
Ceiling fans of the classrooms are very old and they move slowly. The suffocating heat in classrooms made even the simplest tasks difficult.
Water coolers are out of order. There is no cold drinking water available nearby. We have to go to the main gate to drink even a sip of water. Many teachers complained that FDE and educational institutions are working on contradictory promotion policies.
On the one side it was announced in media that students of class I to IV and Class VI to VII will be promoted without exams and on the other hand many Principals of model colleges have issued the date sheet to conduct annual exams.”
Shagufta, a mother of two kids said, “It is a rare sight even to see animals and birds out in the dazzling and burning sun these days.
But toddlers and growing kids of junior classes to senior classes can be seen drenched in their sweat while commuting to school and this is more so when they go back to their home in the sizzling heat packed in school vans.
