Winter vacations announced at 11 am create confusion in Kathua

JAMMU: In what could be termed as a bizarre order, the Chief Education Officer (CEO) Kathua, Balbir Singh today issued an order to confirm the three-day-long winter vacations in the government and private schools of the district but quite too late i.e. after the opening of the institutions at 11 am, thus leaving many schools opened while school heads in dilemma - whether to remain open or not!
Local sources lamented that the late announcement from concerned office particularly when majority of schools were functional has left the concerned head in dilemma ……………what to do? Shall they remain opened or close down, one of the teacher said on anonymity.
The 3-day-long winter vacations, as per an order issued by CEO Kathua, were announced in view of the an advisory issued by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) Metrological Center, Rambagh, Srinagar vide letter number WS-I dated December 5, 2012 regarding fresh western disturbance most likely to affect Jammu and Kashmir from December 11 to December 15.
According to CEO Kathua, Balbir Singh, on December 11, he toured some of the district schools in the upper reaches of Kathua district and appalled to see some of the students of Summer Zone reading under inclement weather. The upper reaches of Kathua witnessed massive snowfall and rainfall on December 11. On the next day, he said, he brought this matter to the notice of District Development Commissioner, Kathua, Rohit Khajuria and sought his permission to close all government and private institutions closed in between December 12 and December 14 for three day.
"At about 10 am, I got a confirmatory call from DDC Kathua to announce closure of the schools and accordingly, at around 11 am, I issued a circular to all the government and private school heads to observe three-day-long vacations," CEO, Kathua said in his defence.
Meanwhile, sources said that the school staff, including teachers, non-teaching faculty members suffered extensively today, as they reached their institutions amid inclement weather conditions, but after opening their schools, came to know that the CEO had issued a circular regarding three-day vacations. "Some of the faculty members even didn't get the copy of the circular. So, they kept their institution opened all the day," sources said, adding the nodal authority shall have announced the vacations atleast a day earlier the scheduled time.