TIMERGARA: More than 1,100 students of government girls’ higher secondary school Ziarat Talash and their teachers heaved a sigh of relief after they shifted to the building of government higher secondary school for boy on the directives of district administration and education department.

The building of GGHSS Ziarat Talash was demolished by Humqadam, an implementing partner of the Department for International Development (DFID), in 2015 but its reconstruction was yet to be started.

The students, their parents and local people raised the issue and finally the district administration and education department agreed to shift all the girl students to the building of higher secondary school for boys in Ziarat Talash.

Under the agreement, the boy students of 11th and 12th grades were asked to shift to the building of GGHSS Talash. Sources said that in the beginning the boy students were not ready to shift to the building of the other school but their teachers convinced them.

Deputy Commissioner Sarmad Saleem Akram, DEO Dr Hafiz Mohammad Ibrahim and principal of GHSS Ziarat Talash took personal interest to settle down the issue of providing shelter to more than 1,100 girl students of the area.

Aminul Haq, principal of GHSS Ziarat Talash, said it was a difficult decision to shift the boys to the remaining building of girls’ school but they took it to promote female education in the area. He said it was only a temporary arrangement. The173 students of first year and 144 of second year attended their classes in the building of girls’ school on Sept 13. The school has only three rooms.

Sources said that the contractor started work on the school’s foundation recently. “I wonder as to how the girls and their teachers spent the last three years in this building,” a subject specialist at GHSS Ziarat Talash told Dawn.

He said that it was difficult for his colleagues too to take proper classes because the existing building was not fit for the purpose. He said that the ongoing construction work and noise of labourers made it difficult to teach properly. On the other hand, the girl students and their teachers expressed pleasure over shifting to the new building.

A woman teacher said that the new building was too not enough to accommodate all the students but they were happy to have more space and good environment.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2018