KOHAT: The future of 200 students of girls’ primary school, Chakarkot Bala, has become dark as there are only three teachers for them.

Ali Hassan, a social worker, told journalists that despite many letters written to the district and provincial education high-ups teachers were not appointed on several sanctioned posts in the school.

He said he had talked to the teachers who complained that it was a difficult job to teach such a huge number of students. He said the education emergency enforced by the PTI government had become just a hoax.

Similarly, Mr Hassan said work on the Ustarzai girls college, which was started in 2008 and scheduled to be complete within 18 months, remained suspended for unknown reasons. He said hundreds of girls had to go to other colleges of Kohat for getting education, and few poor students had quit education.

SUMMER VACATION FEES: Managements of private schools and colleges in Kohat have charged millions of rupees from students for summer vacation fees in violation of Peshawar High Court verdict in this regard.

However, the parents silently pay the fees as they fear the wrath of the influential schools’ administrators who can harm them in the board examinations in different ways.

A man, whose three children are enrolled in a school, said he was forced to pay the summer vacation fee because the teachers and the principal could mentally torture them and give them fewer marks in the internal examinations. He said the school’s management was so influential that it could punish his children in the annual board examinations in different ways.

Another college having strength of 2,500 students has charged the students summer vacation fee despite the fact that it has displayed a banner on its boundary wall that it won’t collect summer vacation fees. The college has reportedly returned fees to those parents who complained and showed the court order to the principal. The normal fee per student at the school is Rs3,500.

Meanwhile, the district administration sealed seven more schools in Darra Adamkhel subdivision and Kohat for collecting summer vacation fees from students against the court order.

A statement issued here said the officials sealed the schools the other day. It may be recalled that earlier five schools were sealed in Kohat.

PRISONER DIES: An under-trial prisoner from Bannu district died due to heart attack in Kohat jail on Sunday.

Suleman Bahadar was involved in terrorism and other crimes, an official told Dawn.

After postmortem, his body was taken to his native village, Mir Azam Bahadar Khel Mandan, where he was laid to rest.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2019