Gulmeena is a 12-year-old 6th grader who can often be seen walking to a well two kilometres from her home to fetch water. Vibrant and sweet-looking, she is eager to reveal how much she misses her school.

She used to go to Government Girl’s Middle School near her village and bring back food that was provided by the school for the family.

Earlier both Gulmeena and her older brother Shayan Khan were admitted in Government Girl’s Primary School in Dargai village 12-km away from Landi Kotal subdivision of Khyber Agency three years ago.

As part of a new government programme, they received free books and uniform along with food packages from the school administration until a year ago when the food programme was withdrawn in April 2011.

“My father stopped me from attending the school when its administration withdrew the food package. Now I help my parents in household chores and fetch water from the well.

“My brother Shayan does not go to school anymore. He works with baba in the fields. I wanted to become a doctor but now I can’t,” cute Gulmeena explained.

Such has been the fate of hundreds of small girls and boys who are missing out on basic education because of a militant campaign against schools. The government’s efforts to grapple with the problem have also been slowed down by lack of basic infrastructure, inadequateresources and sudden withdrawal of projects like the food programme in Khyber Agency.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) was launched in March 2008 in collaboration with the Fata Directorate of Education as a campaign to provide parents with incentives to send their primary and middle school aged children to schools by giving them foodpackages.

The programme focused more on girls and each package included biscuits, cooking oil, a bag of flour, rice and a packet of cereal. Each child got one package at the beginning of the month. Sometimes, parents would get more than three food packages at a time depending on the number of children they had.

However, such programmes cannot go on indefinitely, and inside sources reveal the funds meant for the programme were diverted to rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of Bajaur and Mohmand tribal agencies.  But this shift has caused a noticeable drop in enrolment showing the difference the project was making.

Fata Education authorities revealed that withdrawal of the food package affected boy’s enrolment by 50 per cent and girl’s enrolment by 40 per cent in Landi Kotal schools.

Zahida, who is the Assistant Agency Education Officer (AAEO) and Focal Person of the Food Package Programme in Landi Kotal, Khyber agency, revealed the programme was launched to improve enrolment in government primary and middle schools and added that initially the results were very encouraging when even the students who had dropped out returned to their schools.

“The Food Package Programme covered 66 government boys’ primary schools and 44 girls’ schools. And since the programme’s conclusion, parents have been pulling out their children from schools in large numbers,” she informed.

She added that lack of adequate infrastructure and teachers, especially for girls is another big reason for low literacy rate among women in the tribal regions. However, education experts do not support such a simple scenario – keep giving students food so that they keep coming to school.

Most educational experts believe that conditioning parents by providing economic incentives rather than positive stimuli to children was not a commendable step.

“Other attractive incentives should have been given to the children like transport facilities, interesting and colourful books, proper sports facilities and play areas in addition to improving basic infrastructure and giving counseling sessions to parents,” posited prominent educationist, Prof Rohul Amin.

He expressed the opinion that numerous factors are behind low literacy rate and poverty is only one of them, and thought that, such programmes only show the short-sightedness of donor agencies and an inability to take on the real issues.

“If the basic infrastructure is not in place, especially in the tribal regions where almost half the schools have been destroyed by the militants, and the rest are not functional due to the law and order situation, and where a vigilant monitoring system is missing then a food package programme or any such programme can only bring quantitative change in the system and not a qualitative difference,” argued Mr Amin.

The programme certainly had its difficulties. For example, some reveal that many parents would wait for the beginning of month to get a handsome food package and then not be particularly interested in sending their children to school.

Gul Zameer, a resident of Loey Shalman explained the core problem, “I am poor and old and when my children stopped getting the food package, I admitted my sons to the local religious seminary and had my daughter stay at home to help her sick mother.”

He is driven by the very motivation that pushes many to send their children to madressah (seminary): “At least the madressah does not charge for food and boarding. Whatever money I earn barely buys medicines for my sick wife, forget paying the school fees,” he concluded.

This trend highlights the other negative effects that low school enrolment can have. It is also feared that out-of-school children, especially boys, may fall under militant influence and join their ranks.

Elders of the area agreed and highlighted that in the presence of unemployment, ever-present insecurity and poor infrastructure in the tribal agencies, the food programme was a good incentive for parents to send their children to schools.

“The education department should restart the food programme so that at least girls can be educated up to Matriculation, and boys may stay away from the influence of miscreants,” suggested Malik Khanwali, a resident of the area. His demand is reinforced by many who find the programme to have fruitful results.

“The launching of the UN Food Programme was not only an attractive incentive, but also a fruitful exercise,” said Bahadur Khan Shinwari, Assistant Agency Education Officer (AAEO), based in Jamrud, adding, “Many parents brought their children to school for the first time because of the programme and many did not pull them out even after its closure.”

He concluded with the desire for the programme to be recommenced, “If restarted, it would reinforce the stimulus and may even result in healthier response.”