KHAR: Over 30 government schools in Bajaur Agency have no proper buildings and hundreds of students are forced to study in the open. The situation gets worse when it rains as schools also lack sufficient number of tents for providing shelter to the students.

During a visit to different areas of the agency on Saturday, students and teachers of government schools told Dawn that they had been facing serious problems due to lack of shelter.

“The rain and harsh weather further increase our problems because we are studying without any shelter in the school for the last several years,” said Hassan Khan, a student of government primary school, Mamenzo, Khar teshil. Teachers of the school said that over 300 students had been taking classes under a tent since the school building collapsed in June 2013 due to rain.

They said that the single tent was insufficient to protect the students and during rain the attendance dropped to almost half of the total strength. Parents of the Mamenzo school students, which is located in the heart of Khar, said that majority of the students didn’t go to the school during rainy days.

“We don’t want to put the lives of our children at risk during rainy days as the school has no shelter,” said Munir Khan, a resident of Mamenzo. People of the area said that it was duty of the government to ensure construction of proper school buildings to provide shelter to the students, school but it failed to do so.

An official of the local education department confirmed that over 30 government schools in the agency had no proper buildings. He said that buildings of few of those schools were likely to be rebuilt this year as some donor organisations had assured them to provide funds for the purpose.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2015

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