December 14, 2007	Friday	Zilhaj 3, 1428

MANSEHRA, Dec 13: Hundreds of schools are operating under tents in severe cold in areas of the NWFP hit by the 2005 earthquake. Snowfall has begun on the mountains in the affected districts of Mansehra, Battagram, Kohistan and Shangla.

The young students have to take classes in hazardous conditions as the tents don’t save them from the severe cold. When the temperature rose in summer, the classes were held outside the tents in the shadow of trees.

The pace of the reconstruction process of the affected infrastructure of health and education is slow and it might take five to six years to complete.

The principal of the Government Primary School, Zafar Ground, alleged that the government was not taking interest in reconstructing the schools and the students and teachers were suffering as a result.

He said the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority and the provincial education department had not begun reconstruction of his school although two years had passed since the earthquake.

Mr Zafar said many students had left the school as it was impossible to hold the classes in the tents in hot and cold weather as well as rains.

According to data of the Provincial Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority, 1392 primary schools were destroyed and 956 damaged in the earthquake, 102 middle schools were destroyed and 151 damaged, 71 high schools were destroyed and 89 damaged, 15 higher secondary schools were destroyed and 15 damaged, 13 colleges were destroyed and seven damaged and seven technical and vocational institutes destroyed and two damaged in five districts of the NWFP.

About 90 per cent of the schools and colleges have not yet been reconstructed or shifted to other buildings.

“If Erra wants to speed up reconstruction of the damaged infrastructure, it should bring major changes in its laws and policies for national and international NGOs as the authority cannot carry out the gigantic task alone,” sources in the district education department contended.