THE recent collapse of a school building in Peshawar’s Dir Colony, which killed over 30 students and left many injured, should serve as a wake-up call for the authorities. Whether officials will finally take long-term action to prevent such tragedies is not known at the moment. True, the authorities are quick to take ‘remedial measures’ in the wake of a disaster, but the action hardly has the desired effect. The National Disaster Management Authority, alongside its provincial and district counterparts, was created after the 2005 earthquake in KP and Azad Kashmir. An Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority was also created and later merged with the NDMA. However, in several instances, the NDMA has failed to live up to its mandate.
In the case of Peshawar, as in other Pakistani cities, various agencies have the mandate to regulate building practices in their jurisdictions. Development authorities, municipal corporations, provincial land-use and building-control authorities, and school monitoring regulators share responsibility. But tragedies like the recent school collapse still happen.
School managements must be advised to have their premises assessed for building safety. Ideally, a team of professional engineers and architects should do this. However, many school managements find their services costly. To reduce extraneous costs, a simple inventory list can be prepared by a senior teacher covering the age of the building and its various constituent spaces; visible defects in the structure, furniture and fixtures; status of electricity wiring, boards, hanging wires, cables, ceiling fans and lighting fixtures; location of gas installations, emergency exits (if any); location and safety of the water supply infrastructure; quality of school flooring, pavements and stairs; physical barriers and potential hazards; and storage spaces. The school’s immediate surroundings must also be assessed, as open gutters, hanging electrical wiring, broken roads, public junkyards, etc, can harm students and staff. School managements must then prepare a priority list of actions.
Implementation comes first. In government schools especially, it may take a lot of effort to get the principal to carry out any evaluation, which they may consider beyond their assigned responsibilities. Here, parental pressure will help. If there is a parent-teacher association, the task is easier. Where the cost is small, the school’s imprest funds can cover it. For larger expenses, the relevant authority can be approached — with follow-up pressure, since bureaucracy can take a while to swing into action.
Safety audits must be conducted in all schools.
Private schools should use a different, more tailored strategy. Established chains may already be in touch with architects and engineers who can carry out a survey. Medium-tier schools can also approach qualified professionals — the costs may not be that high at the investigation stage. Similarly, private schools in lower-income localities may be asked to approach the relevant NGOs and professional bodies (for example, the Institution of Engineers or the Institute of Architects) for assistance. In many cases, reaching out has worked well. At a minimum, professional bodies can be asked to train some of the teaching staff to identify hazards and implement safety plans.
Most private schools operate in rented residences. Overcrowded classrooms and shoddily constructed premises, along with schools’ locations on busy urban roads, must be addressed through policy. Building and zoning regulators often disregard construction violations. At times, these risks become larger hazards, such as stampedes during emergency evacuations. Unfortu-nately, civic authorities do not prioritise allocating plots for educational purposes in planned neighbourhoods. School managements’ inability to acquire land at affordable prices is a serious obstacle to building proper schools. Since the neighbourhoods attract students from across the city, hapless pupils can be seen crossing the streets on which badly driven vehicles endanger their lives. This hazard alone should compel city authorities to take firm and lasting action.
KP’s interim administration should consider establishing a steering committee, chaired by an independent technocrat, to take the necessary measures to make school buildings safe across Peshawar. The committee must comprise architects, engineers, academics, civil society members, representatives of relevant government bodies and departments and social mobilisers, and should carry out the tasks needed to ensure positive reform.
The writer is an academic and researcher based in Karachi.
Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2026
