PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation has set up a community school in Allai tehsil of Battagram district for girls, who are unable to go to their educational institution due to the suspension of a chairlift service connecting their Jhangri and Batangi villages.

On Aug 22, Allai residents along with rescue workers and military personnel rescued eight people, who were stranded mid-air for 14 hours in a gondola after its cables snapped.

The district administration later stopped “unfit” ski lifts from operating over threats to public life.

The girls of Jhangari village have a government primary school for them in their area with a woman teacher available to teach them, while Batangi village has a government high school for boys, according to ESEF district programme officer Yar Mohammad.

Residents provide building, ESEF to pay teacher,says official

He told Dawn that the girls of Batangi village had been enrolled in Jhangari school as their village had no school for them, while the boys of Jhangari village were enrolled in the Battangi high school as there was no school for boys in Jhangari.

“The only source of transportation for girls and boys of both villages was the locally-made private chairlift which they used twice a day on payment,” he said.

The official said since the suspension of the cable car service, boys of the Jhangri high school had to cross a deep ravine and towering mountains on foot in around two hours to reach the school and another two hours to return.

He said as girl students of Batangi were very small, so it was not possible for them to climb the mountains and then descend to cross the river.

“Since the chairlift incident, the schoolgirls have got stuck at their homes and have not been attending their classes,” he said.

Mr Yar Mohammad said there were no educated women in Batangi village, while it was not possible for women teachers of other areas to go there.

“We [ESEF] have hired a male teacher for the community school for which the locals have provided the building. The teacher did graduation and underwent a primary teacher course,” he said.

Teacher Faiz Mohammad Shah told Dawn that the school was inaugurated on Thursday with 53 students enrolled on its first day.

He said learning had started for the students up to third grade who had stopped going to their school after the suspension of the chairlift service.

When contacted, ESEF managing director Zareefulul Mani said the establishment of the girls’ community school in Batangi village was direly needed.

“The school’s establishment took just two days. The locals provided us with the building for it, while we will pay the teacher,” he said.

He said the foundation had spent around Rs30,000 for purchasing whiteboards, markers, water coolers and floor mates for students and a chair and a table for the teacher.

Sources in the elementary and secondary education department told Dawn that the government spent Rs60 million on construction of a six-room building for a primary school. They added that the construction of such a school took three to four years.

The sources said currently, around 4.7 million children were out of school in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

They said the education department would need to establish over 15,000 additional government schools for the enrolment of 4.7 million out-of-school children.

The sources said it was beyond their financial resources and almost impossible for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to construct 15,000 schools for out-of-school children.

They said the government should think about establishing more community schools to enrol the maximum out-of-school children as the community schools’ establishment was very quick and required fewer funds.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2023