PESHAWAR, May 2: A deep basement in the crowded Raam Pura Gate in the walled-city of Peshawar serves as an English medium high school where approximately 250 boys and girls study.
The basement school 3.6 metres deep, established two months ago, is surrounded by old houses in the busy marketplace and has no ventilation system, no assembly area, open space or playground.
The basement has been partitioned into sections where the boys and girls attend the classes and carry out laboratory activities, amidst noisy environment. A small portion inside the basement has been earmarked for playing games, where the students can only jostle each other. Every student pays Rs 300 to Rs 400 as monthly tuition fee apart from the admission fee which the school's management terms reasonable.
"No doubt, the state of education institutions both in the public and private sectors is in shambles. But running a school in a basement can be the worst example", said one official of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Peshawar.
The BISE, Peshawar, which registers or grants affiliation to the private sector schools and colleges in the area, has yet to develop a mechanism to keep check on the performance of the schools.
Abdul Rahim Khan, the school principal, said that due to non- availability of proper building and high rent, he set up the school in the basement. Officials of the Department of Schools and Literacy, NWFP, said that there was no such provision in the law to set up a school in a vault.
The school's principal claimed that the District Education Officer Haleem Shirazi had paid a visit to the school and he "appreciated my work." "Parents are satisfied, because their children are getting quality education and they never complained about the building", said the principal, who is also chairman of the local Zakat committee. Zakat committee chairmen can have enormous political clout.
He said he was not the only person who runs a school in a basement. "I can count many schools in the city which are functioning in basements," he added.