PESHAWAR: Directorate of Education Fata has enrolled 126,162 out of school children in public sector schools against the target of 200,000 during a month-long drive across the tribal belt.

The drive was conducted with the help of army, Frontier Corps and local administration in seven tribal agencies and six frontier regions. The directorate said in its report that 126,162 out of school boys and girls were enrolled in first phase while second phase started early this month was in progress.

In addition to the public sector schools, the directorate also focused on private schools and religious seminaries and projected enrolment in these two sectors was 38,250 and 12,350 students, respectively.

“We are confident to achieve the target in the second phase and will enrol remaining children in schools,” said an official at the directorate, adding that detailed profile of children was built up to avoid duplication or forgery.

He said that Computerised National Identity Cards of every child’s parents was documented.

Official says target to be achieved in second phase of enrolment drive

The directorate had missed the enrolment target last year as only 42,000 boys and girls were enrolled against 150,000 out of school children in the area. The body had planned to enrol around 400,000 out of school children in primary schools during the next three years.

Tribal area has the highest number of out of school children after Balochistan. A report released by National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) revealed last year that as many as 70 per cent children in Balochistan and 58 per cent in Fata were out of school.

The tribal agency wise breakup of the enrolment shows that 25,967 children were enrolled in Bajaur, 10,669 in Mohmand, 29,043 in Khyber, 14,370 in Kurram, 4,565 in Orakzai, 10,886 in North Waziristan, 16,499 in South Waziristan, 2,550 in FR Peshawar, 3,897 in FR Kohat, 3,289 in FR Bannu, 9,56 in FR Lakki, 1,547 in FR Tank and 1,924 in FR Dera Ismail Khan.

Despite return of normalcy to the tribal region, several key issues hinder increase in literacy rate and improvement in standard of education. Major problems in education sector in Fata are shortage of teachers, delay in reconstruction of damaged schools and opening of some closed areas.

An official told Dawn that around 3,000 vacancies of teachers of various cadres were lying vacant in the area. He said that recently federal government sanctioned 1,000s posts of teachers and recruitment was in progress.

“The directorate did not appoint a single teacher in Fata since 2012,” said the official. He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government appointed 45,000 teachers and 5,000 more would be appointed by the end of 2017 besides spending billions of rupees on provision of allied facilities in schools.

The official said that there were still several pockets in Fata that had not been reopened owing to security reasons. “These areas need to be reopened to provide access to the directorate to bring children back to schools,” he said.

The decade-long militancy had virtually crippled education sector in the area, which was already in bad shape. Militants had bombed schools and other educational institutions and killed teachers.

Militants had bombed around 1,406 schools, mostly for girls, in the area since 2008 that required reconstruction and rehabilitation.

Another official said that the directorate reconstructed and rehabilitated 1,000 damaged schools while 406 had yet to be repaired. He said that United Nations Development Programme provided funds for reconstruction of damaged schools while funds from normal Annual Development Programme for Fata were also allocated.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2017