September 05, 2007	Wednesday	Sha'aban 22, 1428

SWABI, Sept 4: At least 204 community schools have been closed in various districts of the NWFP, depriving 14,000 students of the opportunity to get education.

This was said by Ibrash Pasha, provincial coordinator of the Coalition for Education, while talking to Dawn on Tuesday.

“We have brought this issue to the notice of the government repeatedly but education officials have simply failed to take meaningful steps for the protection of these schools where children from poor families studied,” he said.

Mr Pasha said that closure of schools had shattered the government’s claim that education would be provided to children at all costs.

He said that these community schools were located in Abbottabad, Haripur, Malakand, Chitral, Swabi, Mardan, Peshawar, Karak, Kohat, Lower Dir, Mansehra, Nowshera, Swat, Lakki Marwat, Hangu, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Charsadda, Batagram, Shangla, Tank, Buner, Upper Dir and Kohistan districts.

Most of the districts where these schools have been closed are: Peshawar, 25, Lower Dir,

21, Upper Dir, 14, and Charsadda, 11, nine in Bannu and eight in Swabi.

The closure of these schools has also left 408 women teachers jobless.