Islamabad - With the advent of summer vacations, different educational institutions and organisations in federal capital have started arranging summer camps for the students to help them engage in studies, stimulating their creativity.
However, summer camps turn to be annoying for most of the students amid scorching heat of summer. Afzal Khan, a father of a school going boy said children dream of playing games, watching cartoons and spending quality time with their relatives and friends during the summer vacations. The summer holidays carry no meaning for them when all of sudden they are asked to attend the summer camps, he said.
Murad Ali, a student, responded about such camps in this way, “We wonder why summer vacations are announced when we have to trudge through summer camps with all textbooks to write, memorise and do all the burdensome math exercises and quirky science questions.”
“Holidays are holidays and what satisfaction we will feel when we are told repeatedly that summer camps are for our own good as practice makes a man perfect and the effort will result in good marks in examinations,” he added.
Sun burns hot in the months of June, July and August and for students it is difficult to continue their studies in unbearably sultry rooms and travel in high temperatures. However, some private schools have come up with the idea of arranging online classes to keep the students abreast with their studies while staying in the safe environment of their homes. Some think holding classes in summer camps help students retain the knowledge gained in the previous months while others are against this idea.
According to the critics, summer camps are a kind of over schooling and they believe that children need two or three months of holidays to relax. During this time, students also keep themselves away from problems they used to face in schools where they often have to bear punishment given by the teachers, and stress while making efforts to come up to the expectations of others in studies and examinations.
A portion of students wants to spend vacations on their own but schools have different plans.
Shaista Hameed, a private school teacher, said the camps are organised with very specific activities in mind. These are mandatory for students, who had to appear in board examinations of fifth, eighth and matric classes, she added.
Most parents approve such camps but many have reservations about these camps for little children at Montessori level or early stages of schooling, she added.