Shrinking days seek timeout for day plan

The continuation of Daylight Saving Time (DST) beyond October 1 on top of shrinking day times and traffic jams is taking a toll especially on students, teachers and parents who are forced to commute very early in the morning.

At the same time, the core purpose of saving energy by efficient use of daylight is also falling flat.

The measure that was able to cut power demand by up to 200 megawatt back in June-July, is no longer serving the purpose as more power is being used in the evening "peak hours", Power Development Board sources say. Traditionally power demands reach the peak around 7:00pm to 8:30pm. One of the objectives of the DST was shifting the peak hours by better utilising the daylight.

Other countries, which follow DST measures, have all reverted to their old timing from October 1 to accommodate shrinking daylight time.

The new school times effective from November 1 would not help the non-government education institutions that deal with the majority segment of students because their times remain unchanged. The new times dictate that government primary schools will start at 9:30am and close at 4:15pm while other educational institutions like high schools, colleges, English-medium schools and madrasas will start between 7:00am and 8:30am and end between 1:00pm and 2:30pm.

The cabinet in June had approved a power ministry proposal to introduce DST. Strangely, the cabinet did not approve the part of the proposal that sought to revert to the old clock on October 1 and reintroduce DST from next April till October 1, 2010 as per international practice.

Now parents, students and teachers of non-government education institutions are complaining that as the sun presently rises around 7:00am DST, they must get up by 6:30am to catch their classes at 8:00am. They must get up even before 6:00am if their schools are located on the city outskirts. Long distance commuters hit the roads when it is still dark only to endure difficulties in finding transport.

"If this system goes on in December-January classes would be held when it is still dark," said Shahana, an unhappy mother of a school-going daughter.

During winter, parents will have to wake up at a time when the sky is still pitch black. The sun in winter will rise as late as 7:37am DST. Therefore, to send children to school, the parents will have to hit the road in the dark.

On a few occasions in recent days, some schools failed to start their first classes on time. Some schools have moved their school time to 8:15am from 8:00am.

Hamida Ali, principal of South Breeze School, said even though they are not facing any problems now the children who live in distant places would face difficulties in getting to their schools in winter.

The days are getting shorter and if the current timing remains in effect children would have to come out for schools before sunrise, she said, adding that many guardians would not agree to let their children out in the dark.

Besides, the parents who do not have access to private vehicles have to bear the difficulty of getting public transport like rickshaw or anything at that time, she pointed out.

A teacher of Oxford International School seconded her saying many students come to the school from distant places and many of them often reach schools late due to traffic jams.

He said some students and teachers especially female ones will face problems reaching school on time in the winter if the DST remains in effect and schools start as per the new timings.

A teacher of Motijheel Ideal School and College said the school authorities naturally relax the school timing in winter but due to DST there would be a problem despite relaxing the time.

Rokeya Akhtar, acting principal of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, said the children are coming to schools on time but college girls are being late.

Back in June 20, when DST measure was introduced, the sun rose at 5:12am and set at 6:48pm. With the introduction of DST this timing instantly changed to 6:12am and 7:48pm, this gave a good advantage in the efficient use of daylight. By the time it was dark most offices and commercial enterprises had called it a day. Consequently the peak power demand had reduced by up to 200MW, said sources quoting PDB's demand curve analysis.

But now the sun rises at 6:57am and sets at 6:32pm. The evening power demands have increased once again.

The PDB has not done demand curve analysis with recent data but officials say the evening demands have certainly increased.

"Though the level of load shedding does not reflect the effectiveness of DST because the country has huge unmet power demands, we can see some signs in the load shedding trend that evening demands have increased," said a PDB official.

Back in June-July following introduction of DST, the level of load shedding hovered around 360MW to 650MW. But between August and October, this level increased to 500MW to 880MW, he added.

A power ministry high official said the government has decided not to revert to the old timing and instead re-arranged office and school timings.

"But there will still be some benefits after the evening. For instance, the shops will close at 8:00pm [which in GMT+6 is 7:00pm] and therefore ease pressure on demand onwards," he said.