MUZAFFARABAD: The newly revised timings for public and private schools have caused serious challenges to most of the working parents who rely on personal vehicles to drop off and pick up their children, it emerged on Monday.

On Friday, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced the new school hours, now set from 9am to 2:30pm. Meanwhile, the office hours for all district level offices and health facilities remain unchanged, from 8:30am to 2pm.

Many parents working six days a week shared their concerns with reporters, explaining how the new schedule would complicate their daily routines.

Previously, they could drop their children at school and arrive at their offices on time. However, the revised timings had made it difficult to balance both responsibilities.

“If we need to reach our offices on time, we’ll have to bring our children along as per the earlier schedule and make them wait outside their schools for half an hour. This is impractical, especially if the schools haven’t opened yet,” one parent said.

“On the other hand, waiting outside the school until it opens would make us late for work, risking our attendance in offices that use a biometric system,” another parent added.

The challenges persist even at the end of the school day, the parents said, adding they would need to wait for up to half an hour after leaving work until schools dismissed their children.

This delay, they said, would disrupt their schedules and add stress to their day.

As an alternative, parents feared they might need to arrange private transportation for their children, which would impose additional financial burden on already stretched budgets.

To address these concerns, affected parents called on the Minister of Elementary and Secondary Education to align school hours more closely with government office hours or reduce the gap to a maximum of 15 minutes, believing that this adjustment would ease their difficulties and bring much-needed relief.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2024