PESHAWAR, Oct 13: At least 7,000 school buildings in the public sector and 1,000 in the private sector have either collapsed or have been damaged in five districts of the NWFP that were hit by a severe earthquake last week.

Provincial Minister for Education Maulana Fazl-i-Ali Haqqani said that the schools and literacy department was preparing a contingency plan to set up makeshift schools in the quake-ravaged areas of the province.

“The government will provide tents to the district governments to re-open the schools as soon as possible,” Mr Haqqani told Dawn here on Thursday.

He said that the plan had been discussed with the federal government which agreed to extend assistance to the quake-affected areas to re-establish the schools.

He said that data complied by the department concerned revealed that 5,000 primary schools for boys and girls had been destroyed in five districts — Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram, Kohistan and Shangla.

Mr Haqqani said that a 1,000 middle, high and higher secondary schools had either collapsed or been partially damaged but these buildings were no more fit for use.

The minister said that nearly 100 male and female teachers had been killed in the earthquake.

He said that staff had been deputed to collect data about the damages.