Children in schools mean less on the streets and more hope for them to be able to put their potential to maximum use.—AFP

‘I might design my own car one day,’ says Waseem Akram smiling self-consciously. Waseem is one of the millions who left his home because of the Taliban and army operation in Malakand Division. He is a matriculate and also holds a diploma in mechanics but his life has taken a sharp turn. ‘Our classes had just started in auto computer design …. but then we just had to leave everything behind,’ he said matter-of-factly. He then begins to tell me about perhaps the most horrendous journey of his life. ‘Shelling had happened the day before we left our homes; but the day we left the shelling got worse and we had to leave with just bare essentials…we left at 3pm. We first went to Batkhela, spent two days there then we came here to Islamabad.’

I’m sitting in a place that houses five families, a total of 70 people including children. A group of excited and shy but adorable children squat on the jute mat and plop themselves in front of me. As soon as I turn to some of the younger children, the girls especially, shy away, whispering in to their uncles’ ear, who likes a middleman, is almost laughing while telling me their responses to my questions. Roshni (light) is a befitting name for a bright little girl, who tells me through bashful giggles that she is in 4th grade. Her favourite subject is Urdu and she wants to be a doctor when she grows up. The second half of her answer is given through her uncle who tells me that she doesn’t like the new system. ‘The little children go to a nearby madressah, where the local maulvi (cleric) gives them religious classes...so the system is very different from what they were used to…plus they get so bored, they don’t have much to do, they go outside and play or go to the madressah for a few hours,’ he adds.

Once having met the basic needs of food (wheat given in sacks in the form of unmilled grain is a common complaint and an illogical step taken by the government) shelter and health care for the refugees, revival of the adolescent and youngsters education should be practically considered. Most of the adolescents and youth are missing their studies they have had to leave behind, in fact, snatched by the Taliban. Up to now over 200 schools have been blown up; the loose building material was carted away, and the structures were auctioned. Not surprisingly, the Taliban took the proceeds of the sales, as everyone, including the children, watched their lives crumble before their eyes. The Taliban have been responsible for this mass misery, hopelessness and pillage of peoples’ properties and assets. They have made millions homeless, thousands of children orphans, hundreds of thousands of women widowed and forced countless minor girls into marrying men old enough to be their fathers (including the Taliban) and ruthlessly slaughtered many innocent civilians. Yet despite the devastation caused by the Taliban many are still confused about whom to blame for their grim fate. After all, they say, ‘we moved out of our homes as soon as the operation began’. Therefore they hold the army accountable. The realization of the operation’s necessity may come to them with time, along with the government’s ability to treat them with sensitivity, but for now everyone is trying to pick up the shards of their shattered lives.

Most of the adolescents I met, including some youth, were all attending school in Mingora, the city they had grown up in. Now homeless and uprooted they miss their schools and feel a kind of void in their lives. ‘You know we used to have a routine, we would go to school, we were studying and learning new things, in hope of becoming something…and all of us have just had to leave our studies, some were in 6th grade or 8th grade,’ he says pointing to the group of children right next to him. Waseem’s concern resonates, or at least ought to resonate with the country’s concern for the future of millions of children.

Unfortunately, historically the Pakistani government has made poor-investment in the education sector, especially the primary level and particularly for girls. And now with the onslaught of millions made homeless the illiteracy rate will shoot up; pushing those on the brink of social rejection head on towards marginalization.

Children in schools mean less on the streets and more hope for them to be able to put their potential to maximum use. Mobile schools and opening schools closed for summer vacations for IDPs are some of the solutions to the sudden vacancy that a lot of children are experiencing.

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