PESHAWAR, Dec 27: A shortage of teaching staff and lack of classrooms, furniture and other facilities have been adversely affecting students of one of the province’s oldest schools, the Government Higher Secondary School No 1, Peshawar Cantonment.

“Several requests to higher authorities in this regard have fallen on deaf ears,” sources said.

Students were being made to sit on the ground and mats were being used due to shortage of furniture.

The school received new furniture back in 1985 that had outlived its life.

The school was established in 1837 and many of its students served the country as bureaucrats, doctors, engineers, etc.

The school is also facing an extreme shortage of teachers. It has 45 teachers for 2,500 students.

Former NWFP Chief Secretary Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi, a former student of the school, had promised provision of 18 teachers and construction of 23 additional classrooms, but it remained unfulfilled. At present, as many as 100 students were enrolled in one classroom.