CHITRAL, Feb 9: The local academicians have said that government should set up a separate Chitral-specific education calendar so that students of the district can get maximum time to attend colleges.

Dr Inayatullah Faizi, teacher at a public sector college, said that students of Chitral couldn't complete courses due to prolonged and extended winter in the district.

He said that Chitral should have a separate board of intermediate and secondary education to adopt a new academic calendar so that local students could get maximum time to complete their courses.

Colleges are closed in Chitral for winter vacations in the early days of December and reopened in the month of March next while examinations are held in the months of April and May.

Due to winter vacations of more than three months, the students of the local colleges appear in the examinations without completing their respective syllabuses.

In winter season, the temperature remains below the freezing point in the district, making it impossible to keep the colleges opened and carry out teaching activities.

Mohammad Tufail Khan, a former lecturer, suggested that examinations of both matriculation and intermediate classes should be started in the month of December simultaneously and results should be compiled by the end of February.

He said that the admissions to both first and third year should be completed in March and classes should commence from April. "This will give enough time to students to remain in classrooms," he added.

Syed Sayyar Badshah, a final year student, said that he never completed syllabus during his four years studies in the college not owing to incompetence of teachers but because of acute shortage of time.

"How students of Chitral can compete with their colleagues of plain areas where colleges remain open from December to March," he asked.

Mr Badshah said that there was a marked difference between the Chitrali students studying in local colleges and those in the colleges of Peshawar or other plain area.

Syed Sardar Hussain Shah, former district general secretary of PPP, said that Chitral should have its own schedule for matriculation and intermediate examinations. "For this purpose, it must have its own board of intermediate and secondary education," he added.

Mr Shah said that Chitral district qualified the criterion for having a separate educational board because more than 30,000 local candidates appeared in the examinations every year.