UPPER DIR: Students of several government schools in Upper Dir are forced to sit in the courtyard, as the authorities have turned their classrooms into warehouses for storing books, which are annually supplied for free distribution.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is providing free books to students from nursery to intermediate classes in the government schools. These books, which could be in millions, were stored in several schools of Upper Dir district instead of proper warehouses.

Government primary school No1, Rehankot, is one of such centres that serves as storage and distribution point of free books for other schools of the district. Most of the classrooms of this school have been occupied by a big stock of books, leaving no space for the students to sit and study. They students have no other option, but to sit in the courtyard or playground of the school in the sizzling heat, while in case of rain it is impossible for them to continue classes.

Apart from affecting the studies the burden of these books is also causing damage to furniture and other items of these schools, the students told Dawn.

The authorities have stored a big stock of free books in the classrooms

Gul Bahar, a grade-II student, told Dawn that he along with his other fellows might leave education or at least this school as they are fed up with sitting on the dirty ground.

Azizullah, father of a student, demanded of the education department to shift the books and vacate the classrooms so that their children could study in a favourable atmosphere.

District education officer Jan Mohammad told Dawn that almost every year new courses were introduced and as such the stock of old books remained in the stores and centres while the new books were distributed. He said that the provincial education department had been informed about the problems being faced by the students of these schools, but they were still waiting for a reply.

The DEO said that some schools in other districts were also facing a similar problem. Sources in the education department said that a lot of extra books had been shifted to this school from Peshawar. They said that the required quota of books had been supplied to the primary, middle, high and higher secondary schools of the district, while an unspecified number of books were still stocked in a few schools.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2015

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