LANDI KOTAL: National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) in collaboration with the education department on Friday started school enrolment drive in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency amid teachers’ boycott.

A ceremony in this connection was arranged at the Husai Khula primary school which was attended by officials of the NCHD, education department, parents and local residents. A total of 170 students, both girls and boys, were admitted to the school with provision of free books and school bags.

Later, talking to Dawn, Agency Education Officer Abdur Rauf Shah said that teachers’ boycott of classes to demand upgradation had led to closure of most of the schools in the agency. He, however, said that the education department was now heavily relying on parents and local elders to make the enrolment drive in Khyber a success.

“We plan to bring in 27,000 new children to schools in two phases with the first phase ending on May 31, which is already affected by the teachers’ boycott,” he stated.

Mr Shah was, however, optimistic that maximum number of children could be attracted towards schools in the second phase which would start in September and end in October.

“We are trying to create a conducive atmosphere in the schools in order to make new students comfortable there and also to reduce the dropout rate at primary level,” he added.

Meanwhile, protesting teachers continued with their sit-in at the Bab-i-Khyber here on the second day on Friday to press the government for implementing the upgradation policy announced and implemented by the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2012.

ILLEGAL AFGHANS DEPORTED: Khyber Agency political administration on Friday deported 121 Afghan nationals at the Torkham border who had been arrested by police in different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for entering Pakistan without legal travel documents.

Officials said that the deported men belonged to Nangarhar, Kabul, Mazar Sharif, Qandahar and Paktia provinces of Afghanistan. Earlier in the day, the Peshawar police had handed them over to the Khyber Agency political administration to be deported to their country.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2016