PESHAWAR, Nov 11: The National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) has re-opened 276 schools in the earthquake-hit areas and 6,259 children have been enrolled in the schools so far. Seventy of these schools are for girls.

This was stated by Riaz Hassan Khan, district manager of the NCHD, during a visit to a feeder school established in the Ghazi Kot Township in Mansehra district on Friday.

He said that with the opening of these tent and feeder schools, the children of Mansehra would be able to get education at their doorstep.

The NCHD was trying to open more schools, where the children were either in tents or in their homes, Mr Khan added.

Giving break-up of the schools in district Mansehra, he said that 190 schools were operational in tehsil Mansehra, 52 in tehsil Oghi, 18 in tehsil Balakot and 16 in tehsil Kala Dhaka. Among these 276 schools, 79 were for girls.

He said the schools would be provided with all basic facilities of education like trained teachers, books and monitoring etc.

“We are in close liaison with the education department, to whom we are providing full support in re-opening of government schools”, he said. In a couple of days, we will be able to establish another 100 schools in the most affected areas including Balakot, Kaiwai, Garhi Habibullah and Kaghan valley, he added.

Explaining the working of feeder and tented schools, he said the NCHD had 476 feeder teachers in district Mansehra, who had been working since 2003. Now we are mobilising the same teachers for establishing these schools, as around 752 primary teachers had died in the earthquake, he maintained.

Explaining the role of volunteers in re-opening of the schools, he said registered volunteers of the NCHD were actively involved in mobilising the schoolchildren and their parents to get enrolled their children in these schools.