BAJAUR: Residents of Seeda Shah, a remote area of Charmang Valley of Nawagai tehsil on Sunday complained about the closure of a government school for more than a week due to the ‘absence’ of teachers and warned of holding a protest if the issue was not addressed immediately.

Talking to reporters, the residents including Ziaur Rehman, Anjum Khan and Sahar Gul said that the government primary school for boys was the only public educational institution in the area and the adjoining villages.

They said that the school had been closed for the last one week due to the absence of teachers, claiming that there had been no permanent teachers at the facility for several months.

“The government primary school for boys, the only public educational institution in our area, has been closed for about a week after temporary teachers stopped coming, apparently due to non-payment of their salaries for several months,” a resident said.

They said the closure of the school was a matter of great concern as it was depriving hundreds of enrolled students their right to education.

Accusing local education department officials of failing to appoint regular staff, they said they had raised the issue with the department several times but to no avail.

The residents urged the district administration and education department officials to take serious notice of the matter by appointing regular teachers and clearing the dues of temporary teachers with immediate effect.

They warned that they would stage a protest demonstration in front of the local education department office if the issue was not resolved without further delay.

Meanwhile, an official of the local education department familiar with the matter confirmed to Dawn on Sunday that there was no permanent teacher at the school since long.

However, the official said efforts were under way to resolve the issue at the earliest by posting permanent teachers and clearing payments of temporary teachers.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2026