Educational institutions have embarked on yet another long holiday combining Eid-ul-Azha and summer holiday with all government and non-government secondary and junior secondary level educational institutions going on a 23-day holiday from Sunday.
On the day, the three government Alia madrassahs and non-government separate, ibtedayi, dakhil, alim, fazil and kamil madrassahs also went on a straight 27-day holiday.
From tomorrow, a 21-day holiday will start in all government primary schools.
As per the academic calendar issued by the Secondary and Higher Education Division under the education ministry, the holiday in the government and non-government secondary and junior secondary level educational institutions started on June 1 and will continue till June 19.
However, before June 1, May 30 and 31 were weekend and June 20 and 21 are weekend, too, adding four more days to the 19-day holiday.
In cases of the madrassahs, the academic calendar issued by the Technical and Madrasah Education Division, the holiday is from June 1 till June 25. The weekend of May 30 and 31 adds two more days to the 25-day holiday.
The vacation in the government primary schools will be from June 3 till June 23, as per the academic calendar issued by the Directorate of Primary Education under the primary and mass education ministry.
During Eid-ul-Fitr also, the government primary schools were closed for 40 days, while the secondary level educational institutions were closed for 38 days and madrasshas were closed for 42 days.
As per their respective academic calendars, primary and secondary educational institutions this year have 76 days of holidays, while madrassahs have 73 days of holidays. The holidays do not include weekends.
Educationists and campaigners criticise such long holidays in educational institutions, expressing concern that such long holidays are putting the students on the back foot, particularly when they have already suffered considerable learning losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic and July mass uprising.