LANDI KOTAL, Feb 25: More than 1,000 digital radio sets distributed among Fata schools have been lying unused for the last eight months due to lack of know-how and apathy of the tribal areas' education department, it is learnt.

Around 1050 World Space Digital radio sets were donated to the Fata education department by a Karachi-based NGO through the federal government in last July to help provide tribal students of middle, high and higher secondary schools access to modern techniques of learning and education.

The sets were distributed among principals and headmasters of schools in Fata and the Frontier regions by the NWFP governor during a ceremony in Jamrud, Khyber Agency on July 3, 2004, and were given wide publicity. This correspondent has learnt through sources in the Khyber Agency education office that almost all the sets were lying unused since the day they were distributed.

In some schools, these digital radio sets have been taken away by either the school principal or certain teachers, the source said, adding that none of the tribal students was given permission to use the sets for 'education' purposes.

A teacher in Bara told Dawn on condition of anonymity that he was able to link up one of the radio sets to a satellite and was now enjoying listening to Fox News, CNN, Sahara and Zee broadcasts as well as 24-hour non-stop English music.

An assistant director in the Fata education department told Dawn that none of his department staff had the required knowledge or technique to use these radio sets. He lamented that a huge sum of money was squandered by purchasing the sets and suggested that the money should have been spent on some other good purpose in tribal areas.

He said that "we were told that the sets would broadcast the Allama Iqbal Open University programmes" but the technique to run and tune in the so-called hi-tech sets "were not taught to us".