NAROWAL: The Government Primary School, Dodhaywali, has been closed for the last six years because of the non-availability of teachers, and its building which was also built 10 years ago, is being used as a cattle pen.

The village is seven kilometres from the Narowal city. The purposed-built building of the school has all basic educational facilities such as electricity, classrooms, furniture, boundary wall, washrooms and clean drinking water. To supply electricity to the school, the government spent hundreds of thousands to install a transformer there. Up to 300 students of various villages got enrolled at the school when the school started. Gradually, teachers got themselves transferred from the village school to city schools.

Village people say students had to leave the school due to the non-availability of teachers. The well-off families of the village got their children admitted to private schools of the Narowal city where they go by vans and rickshaw. The children of poor farmers and labourers, however, suffered the most for they have been out of the school for the last six years. Some villagers saw the closure of the school an opportunity to use the school building as cattle pen.

Residents of the area Muhammad Akbar and Muhammad Saleem told Dawn that in the last six years, they wrote several applications to the chairman of the Narowal District Education Authority to provide teachers but no action was taken. When this Dawn correspondent was in the village, several other residents gathered there and raised slogans against the District Education Authority and the deputy commissioner.

Labourers and farmers appealed to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to take notice of the situation and appoint teachers.

District Education Officer Ms Tahira said she has assumed the office just three months back and she did not know why the teachers were transferred to other schools without arranging alternate placement. She said all the students, however, been shifted to a nearby school.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2019