SHANGLA: The government girls high school, Alpurai, has been awaiting reconstruction of its building since 2005.

The building had been demolished by the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) after it developed cracks in the 2005 earthquake.

Latif Khan, a local resident, said the school was located a few miles away from the district headquarters where offices of the deputy commissioner and heads of all the departments were located, but the area’s only school for girls was yet to be rebuilt.

He said that their children were facing severe problems due to absence of the school’s own building while the classes had been shifted to a rented building that was very congested.

Razia of class 9th told this scribe that she had been studying in this rented building since passing primary school where classrooms were small and congested.

“We are girls and can’t hold protests on the roads otherwise we would have staged one for our rights especially to demand early reconstruction of the school building,” she said and added that neither the government nor the education department was interested in school reconstruction.

Laila Khan of Grade-10 said the environment in the rented building of school was not conducive to learning.

Saira Bibi, a student of Grade-7, said the elected representatives and officials y had been making tall claims about reconstruction of their school, but in fact even the rubble of demolished building had not been removed from the school site.

She said their classrooms were small due to which even the Covid-19 SOPs could not be followed.

When contacted, assistant education officer planning and development Ikramullah said around 500 students were enrolled in the GGHS Alpurai. He said the school would be included in the upcoming annual development programme.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2021