PESHAWAR: Though militants bombed their school many times, the resolve of the students of the Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Samand Khan village, to get education is not shaken.

The schoolgirls totaling over 500 have long been attending classes under the shade of trees and huts as the bombings destroyed the building of the school located in the Frontier Region Peshawar.

The building’s only unaffected portion is a small room, which, despite having cracks, is used as a science laboratory for students.

In the absence of a building and other facilities like electricity and drinking water, enthusiasm of the students shows they’re committed to getting education and that their families, especially male members, are not against girls education.

The school building was bombed repeatedly in 2008, 2011 and 2012, a teacher told Dawn.

She said militants targeted the school last in 2012 and destroyed it completely by detonating seven bombs planted at different points.

Over 500 pupils continue education even though militants targeted their school thrice

Disappointed by the indifferent attitude of the Fata secretariat, which is responsible for the reconstruction of destroyed schools in FRs and tribal areas, teachers of the school have established six huts to take classes under shade during the summer season.

“Each hut has students of two classes,” she said.

The teacher said the school didn’t open whenever it rained and it remained closed until the rain stopped.

When asked about the repeated bombings of the school, she said the school had a good reputation for offering quality education and therefore, parents wanted to get their daughters enrolled there and that was the reason it was subjected to attacks by militants over and over again.

“Several local teachers have graduated from this school,” she said.

The teacher said local girls were very keen in getting education and that there’re 62 children in nursery class only.

The relevant officials told Dawn that hundreds of students enrolled in the seven other destroyed schools in FR Peshawar too faced the same situation.

They said debris of the destroyed schools was sold to a contractor for Rs4.2 million, which was deposited in the national kitty.

The sources said repeated requests to the Fata secretariat, Fata Disaster Management Authority and donor agencies for provision of tents to educate students of the destroyed schools had fallen on deaf ears.

They said tribal areas had around 500 schools, which were partially damaged or completely destroyed in acts of terrorism, but the federal government had yet to ensure reconstruction of many of them.

A senior official in Fata secretariat told Dawn that 290 schools had been reconstructed in different tribal agencies so far.

He said under a policy, the Fata secretariat had stopped new constructions as all available funds would be used to rebuild the destroyed schools.

The official said of the destroyed schools, the Fata secretariat had approved the reconstruction of 87 schools in July 2015.

He said of those schools, 36 were located in South Waziristan, 15 in North Waziristan and 36 in Khyber Agency.

“The Fata education directorate and the army are busy with the reconstruction of schools,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 18th , 2015

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