MANSEHRA: Almost seven years have passed after the flashfloods swept away 25 schools in Kandia tehsil of Upper Kohistan district but the relevant authorities have failed to rebuild them, forcing students to attend classes in temporary shelters or tents.
Among those schools are 23 for boys and two for girls.
Kandia tehsil has a total of 100 schools, including 13 for girls, for the population of 250,000. However, its overall literacy rate is less than 10 percent and it is almost zero in women.
In a recent report, the Alif Ailaan, a nongovernmental organisation, said around 2,000 children of the tehsil go to schools, including those destroyed by the 2010 flashfloods, while over 8,000 are out of schools.
It further revealed that though there are 13 schools for girls in the tehsil but only one of them is functional.
Hafeezur Rehman, a local representative of the Alif Ailaan, said the government didn’t take the cause of education in Kandia tehsil seriously as 25 schools swept away in the 2010 flashfloods had yet to be reconstructed.
He said it was ironic that the reconstruction of such schools hadn’t begun even seven years after their destruction. Mr Rehman complained that first the tehsil had only one functional school for girls and second it lacked teachers and facilities.
He said the ‘educational mess’ in Kandia tehsil was a gross violation of the Constitution’s Section 25A, which guaranteed the provision of compulsory education to every child in the country.
The Alif Ailaan representative pushed both federal and provincial governments for rebuilding schools for the better future of the local residents.
When contacted, district education officer (male) Fida Mohammad said he and Upper Kohistan deputy commissioner had taken up the matter with the relevant authorities and that the sought-after action was likely to take place soon.
He said Upper Kohistan had more than 600 schools for boys but 40 percent of them were destroyed in the 2005 earthquake.
“The Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority has been tasked with reconstructing around 240 schools flattened by the 2005 earthquake. With work at different stages, we want to have their early possession,” he said.
The DEO said the education department was striving to bring out-of-school children to schools.
Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2017