KHYBER: Official negligence, shortage of teachers and damaged school buildings dealt a serious blow to the ongoing enrollment drive in militancy-affected Bara tehsil of Khyber tribal district.

Teachers of some government schools, who requested anonymity, told this scribe during a visit to some of the damaged schools in different localities of Bara, that instead of bringing in more students, parents were withdrawing their children from government schools owing to persistent lack of facilities and official negligence.

They said that most of the tents provided by the provincial government about six years ago after destruction of school buildings were worn out beyond repair. They said that students were still compelled to sit under those tents as neither new tents were provided nor were the damaged buildings repaired.

The government provided some schools with fabricated classrooms a few years ago but those could not accommodate the large number of students. The students in some of these schools have to sit in open under trees due to the lack of space inside tents and fabricated classrooms.

Khan Akbar, the principal of Government Middle School Spin Qabar, in Sipah, area told this scribe that he had four fabricated classrooms and only two worn out tents for nearly 1,000 students.

The school was destroyed by militants in 2006-7 and reopened in 2015 after the return of displaced families to Bara. “The school building is in need of immediate reconstruction as students cannot bear the harsh weather conditions,” he said.

About 200 to 300 students were seen sitting in the shadow of the boundary wall as the main compound was muddied with rainwater. Some of water also inundated half space of a tent.

The situation in Government Middle School Gandaw was no different as one of the three tents was recently knocked down by strong winds while over 750 students were ‘stuffed’ into two ruptured tents and four fabricated classrooms.

“I have to adjust students of two or three classes in one fabricated room or tent to continue our courses and keep them busy in their studies,” Abidullah, the principal of the school, said.

Apart from damaged buildings and dilapidated condition of tents, shortage of teachers was also cited to be one of the major reasons for rapid dropout of children of different grades from the government schools in Bara.

Sources said that although schools were reopened in Bara after the return of displaced families in 2014-15 with limited facilities, yet the number of teaching staff was not increased and it remained the same as it was some two decades ago.

Samar Gul, a resident of the area, said that poor parents pulled out their children from government schools for lack of facilities and instead put them to work on daily wages to augment their meagre resources. He said that the parents, who could afford the expenses of private schools, took their children to those institutions.

This scribe tried several times to contact the district education officer (DEO), Uzair Ali, for his comments on the serious setback to the ongoing enrollment drive and continuous official negligence about the provision of better facilities to government schools, but he refused to oblige.

His office had even no figures about the number of so far enrolled children in government schools and the target for this year. The DEO was also yet to inspect the schools in need of repair and provision of other required facilities.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2022