The woeful state of education in K-P, FATA

Over 792 government schools throughout Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata are non-functional.

PESHAWAR:

Over 792 government schools for boys and girls throughout Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) are non-functional, a report compiled by the provincial education department said.

Schools have not just been closed down because of militancy, but also because of unavailability of qualified teachers, the education department’s annual report for the previous year said.

According to the report, which was submitted before the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly earlier this month, the number of primary and middle schools closed down across the province is 252 while 542 of them are closed in Fata.

“Teachers are not willing to work in far-flung tribal areas because of the uncertain security situation,” an official of the Fata Secretariat told The Express Tribune.

Government presence, which was already thin in Fata’s education sector, was further eroded by militants. According to the official, militants had destroyed 419 government schools in Fata over the years.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the situation is worse. “Since 2007, more than 940 schools for girls and boys were completely or partially destroyed by militants in the province,” says provincial education minister Sardar Hussain Babak, who belongs to the ruling Awami National Party.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was also among the areas worst hit by the 2010 floods. “In all, 1,900 schools have been destroyed because of militancy and floods,” Babak says.

Babak said that since 2008, when his party came to power, it has focused on improving the situation and reopening schools. “When we took charge, 1,600 schools were closed. Over the past three years, we have managed to reopen 1,350 schools,” Babak said, adding that 27,167 of the province’s 27,419 schools are fully functional while 252 are temporarily closed.

“More than four million students are studying in our schools,” he said, “but over 2.5 million children are still out of school.”

According the provincial education department’s annual report for 2010, 158 of the province’s 990 union councils (UCs) have no high or higher-secondary school for boys while 505 UCs have no high or higher-secondary school for girls.

The report declares Kohistan the least-developed district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in terms of education. Over the past year, only 254 girls were enrolled in the district’s middle and high schools, and there is no female student at the higher secondary level.

The report says that 1,070 primary school teachers and 134 middle school teachers are being paid salaries even though their schools remained closed.

To improve the dismal state of female literacy, Babak said the administration has launched a special project. “We are giving 200-rupee monthly stipend to every female student from grades six to 10 and providing edible oil and wheat to all female students at the primary school level,” he said.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2011.