PESHAWAR: Monitors have recently identified around 800 government schools which are lying closed since long for different reasons in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, depriving thousands of children from education in the respective localities, according to sources.

With the start of monitoring of the government schools by Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU), established a few months ago, so far 800 closed schools have been detected. The figure was mentioned in a monthly report prepared by IMU at the end of May, sources in the Elementary and Secondary Education (E&SE) Department told Dawn.

The IMU report being shared with the education department revealed that of the 800 closed schools, 53 were due to militancy, while rest of the schools were closed because of absence of teachers and land disputes, the sources said.

Quoting the report, the sources said that the monitors had found 1,200 other government schools which were locked during their visit in school timing.

Most of schools lying shut due to teachers’ absence, land disputes

Usually one or two teachers perform duties in such schools (temporarily closed) who were not present at schools rather they had gone for examination or other duties at the time of monitors’ visits leaving no one to take care of the students, they said.

Regarding the 800 permanently closed schools, the sources said that such schools were closed since long but in the absence of proper monitoring system, the high ups in the education department were kept in the dark about them by the officials in the district education offices.

The real picture came to light when hundreds of monitors working under the IMU visited each school across the province, they said.

The data about the government schools so far compiled by the Education Management Information System (EMIS), a cell working in the secretariat of the education department, has never depicted the real picture of the closed schools.

In its fresh report, the EMIS has shown only 397 schools as closed, much less than the number given in the IMU’s report for May.

The IMU has started regular monitoring of all the schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from March 2014.

The data is collected by 475 monitors of IMU using a customised application on their smart phones. The monitors’ locations are changed each month to maintain transparency.

The sources said that some elements in the education department were not happy with IMU for exposing negligence of the teachers concerned about conditions of the schools, their presence and available facilities.

Of the 800 closed schools, 750 are nonfunctional due to unavailability of teachers and disputes over the land of schools between the government and owners, the sources said, adding that the remaining 50 schools had become inaccessible for students and teachers due to militancy.

An official of the education department told Dawn that most of the closed schools were located in far-off areas.

He said that the teachers often showed reluctance to perform duties in schools away from their homes.

The teachers posted in remote areas make full efforts through political influence to manage their transfer to urban areas, he said. In the absence of teachers, the enrolled students in schools of remote areas stop coming to schools.

When contacted, E&SE director Rafiq Khattak told Dawn that the IMU report had not yet been shared with him. However, he said that efforts would be made to appoint teachers in closed schools.

Published in Dawn, July 6th , 2014