November 22, 2007	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 11, 1428

PESHAWAR, Nov 21: The NWFP government may shift students from Swat to schools in Mardan and Peshawar till the situation in the troubled district returns to normal. “We submitted a summary to the chief minister today (Wednesday) to shift students from the embattled district of Swat to schools in Mardan and Peshawar,” Shafiullah Khan, NWFP secretary for schools and literacy, told Dawn.

He said they had received 25 applications from parents in Swat, who wanted to shift their children outside the district. He said they had sent recommendations of a committee to the chief minister wherein several options had been mentioned for solving problems of students in the district.

The official said the students would be accommodated in government or private schools. He said they had held a meeting with principals of different schools in Peshawar and Mardan.

Another option, he said, was that the students would be admitted to second shift in two schools in Cantonment areas. A third option was early winter vacations in Swat.

“Educational institutes are closed in the Swat district from December 24 to February end, but the government may announce the winter vacations a month earlier,” he said.

The secretary said he hoped the situation in Swat would improve during the winter vocations and the students would resume their studies in a peaceful atmosphere.

Once the shifting of students was approved by the chief minister, the education department would hire a building for the students to accommodate them, he said.

He said the number of students willing to be shifted to schools outside could grow with time because at present most of parents did not know about the government’s plan of shifting students.

He said the chief minister had also been requested to sanction a budget for the students.

A committee comprising executive district officers of Swat and Peshawar and other officials has been tasked to collect information about the students.

“We want to adopt measures that could save the precious time of thousands of students. A decision in this connection would be taken in a couple of days,” the officials said.