PESHAWAR, Sept 5: School going children are caught up in the year-long conflict between security forces and militants as many schools have been torched in the troubled Swat valley depriving students from their basic right to education.

During the last one year militants have dynamited or burnt many girls’ schools. Initially, some schools were completely closed after the launch of military operation against armed militants in October 2007. Later, the schools, which were not closed immediately, received threatening letters from militants which spread fear as a result the institutions were closed down.

Students, especially girls, have lost their schools in the valley during the last one year due to militancy which is fallout of the war on terror mainly fought in the tribal areas. The district education department officials in Swat informed that so far 99 schools had been destroyed which had affected education of 25,000 students.

“We cannot do anything about it at present. We have no idea how to provide education facility to the students. There is so much insecurity at present,” said a concerned official of the education department. According to officials, students have suffered due to the ongoing conflict in the district as not only their schools were destroyed but imposition of curfew also confined them to stay home.

Although schools have reopened recently after vacations, but students’ attendance is still thin. The number of students coming to schools is almost half of the total strength, official said. “Sometime curfew is imposed unannounced that is why we fear sending our children to school,” said Habibullah Khan, a parent from Shakardarra.

Adolescents caught up in conflict in the valley are also prone to join militancy. They are pressed into such activities as there are no recreational and healthy activities. They risk of being caught in a cycle of delinquency, aggression, depression and hopelessness is always there. “Adolescents who can’t attend schools due to conflict, do nothing all day. There is no healthy activity for us here,” complained 16-year-old Ajmal.While burning or bombing of schools is one favourite pressure tactic of the militants, the government has not arrested anyone involved in such subversive activities so far. The provincial education minister, Sardar Hussain Babak, has declared the burning and bombing of schools ‘man-made disaster’.

“We are concerned about this situation,” the minister said and added that the government was aware of the gravity of the situation. He said that the destroyed schools could not be reconstructed immediately as the security situation was still not satisfactory. He said that the Unicef had pledged to help to reconstruct 95 schools in Swat but work would be started only when the security situation in the region improved probably after Ramadan.