MANSEHRA: The Alif Ailaan, a non-governmental organisation working for education reform in the country, has found a large number of ghost schools in Pallas tehsil of Kohistan district.

“In an effort to attract girls to schools, the government had announced monthly stipends for them but almost all girls schools are non-functional and thus, depriving girls of their right to education,” Alif Ailaan regional coordinator Hafizur Rehman told reporters here on Saturday.

Rehman along with members of parent-teacher councils visited Pallas and found a large number of ghost schools, where salary was regularly drawn in the name of staff but the buildings were used as cattle pens.

The Alif Ailaan coordinator said Pallas was a very backward area, where people, especially girls, had no access to education.

Alif Ailaan says many Pallas schools are used as cattle pens but salary regularly drawn in the name of staff

“The Primary School for Girl Shahmanabad doesn’t have a single teacher and that local people have installed a saw-machine in the building,” he said.

Rehman said the school building was abandoned after its construction though huge sum of money was spent on it.

He said unfortunately, the school, which wasn’t made functional even after the construction of its structure, was upgraded to the middle standard and that another building was put up to misappropriate funds.

The Alif Ailaan coordinator said the Primary School for Girls Hujarabad was found to be in shambles and that a saw machine was installed there.

He asked if schools had saw machines, how the highly backward district could progress and achieve the double-figure literacy rate.

Rehman said a watchman was appointed to the school but it hadn’t become functional even for a single hour since its construction years ago.

He said the Government Primary School for Girls, Madan Kolai, was functional but girl students had been denied monthly honorarium since 2014.

The Alif Ailaan coordinator said the government should take special steps to pave way for the promotion of education in the remote district so that it could be on a par with other developed districts of the province.

He said majority of schools, mostly those for girls, were ghost in remote areas of Kohistan and therefore, the government should take corrective measures without delay.

JUI PROTEST: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl Mansehra chapter has announced it will agitate if its leader and former MPA Mufti Kifayatullah is not freed without delay.

“We want the immediate release of our leader (Mufti Kifayatullah) otherwise we will take to the streets against the government,” JUI-F information secretary Saeed Abdullah told reporters here on Saturday.

Abdullah said Mufti Kifayatullah had been taken into custody for unfairly.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2015

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