MARDAN, Nov 30: Residents of Union Council Mangah have complained that due to lack of accommodation in boys schools and absence of any high school for girls in the area, their children are facing severe problems.

A survey conducted by this scribe, revealed that the lone government middle school for boys in the UC Mangah has only three rooms for three classes in which 290 students are studying.

All the students are required to sit on bare floor as there are no rugs or mats. The situation becomes extremely painful during winter season. A total of 117 students of Class VI are forced to sit in a single room of small size. The students complain that room is so congested that they are unable to write what the teachers teach them.

Students of other classes made complains of similar nature. Although the total area of the school is of eight kanals, only three rooms are constructed on this area.

According to headmistress of the school if funds were provided to the school more rooms could be constructed which would not only provide better accommodation to the students but also provide an opportunity to build classrooms for other grades.

The school was constructed in 1992 but the construction was so substandard that cracks had appeared at various places and building had become so dangerous that second floor could not be constructed on it.

This school is meant for 25,000 population which cannot fulfil the requirements and needs of the area.

The school has no boundary wall, which has exposed the whole structure to unscrupulous elements of the area.

There are only six teachers in the school while there is a need for teachers.

Iqbal Khan, the Nazim of Mangah, told Dawn that he was making efforts for the construction of additional rooms at the school. He said he had contacted officials concerned of the education department and other elected people of the area in this regard who had assured him of their support.

Due to the non-availability of high school in Mangah, most of the students are unable to get education because the area people were poor and cannot afford to send their offsprings to schools at far away places, Iqbal said.

Iqbal Khan further said there is no middle or high school for girls for the 25,000 population of the area and deplored that almost all the young girls in his constituency were illiterate. However, people realized the importance of education and wanted to send their daughters to school but there was no girls school in the area.

He said only two girls’ primary schools in his constituency were functioning but their conditions were quite poor. Both the schools have just one room each, with one school have 221 students, and another 121. Walls of both these schools were damaged by storm some times ago.

Headmistress of the school told this scribe that since school had no boundary wall, area people used the place to dump garbage. Moreover, anti-social elements wrote immoral indecent slogans on black boards.

Iqbal said that the area had fields of tobacco, sugarcane, beat, besides vegetables and contributes millions of rupees to the federal government but no attention was given to this area particularly in the education sector.