Education dilemma: A school where ‘science is an art’, literally

There are only six art teachers for over 700 students in Manrai Village’s only high school for years now.

SWAT: Science is not a perfect science; there are multiple interpretations to every chemical reaction and gravity is a postmodern idea that might not stand the test of time. This is what teachers at Manrai Village’s only high school are equipped to teach their science students. The school does not have a single science teacher, thus mandating the art teachers to fill in. 

Situated about 34 km from Mingora, the school building, destroyed 15 months back by floods, is yet to be reconstructed. More than 700 students thus study in tents. A total of six teachers, all specialising in arts, teach them.

“Science teachers are often appointed but they get themselves transferred by using political influence,” said Mohammad Afzal, an arts teacher who has been taking science lessons. “I have been teaching here for more than 10 years now but I haven’t had an opportunity to teach students drawing, as I have to take science classes.”

Meer Mohammad, a student of class 10, said, “I have been studying here since Kindergarten. I have not taken even one science lesson in class 9. People say we are the future of our nation, but how can we lead with our current situation?”

Abdul Wali, a student of class 9, said they have had to take classes in “very” bad weather. “You can see the deplorable conditions of the tents. A harsh wind or rainstorm beating against the already tattered tents, which means we will be having the day off.”

Abdul Wali, who has been teaching in the school since 2002, complained about the education department’s lack of interest. “Even when the school was completely destroyed by the floods, neither education department nor the elected body bothered about us.”

Voicing similar sentiments, elders of the village said they have been unable to get through to the department despite repeated complaints.

Member Provincial Assembly Waqar Khan told The Express Tribune that they had put the school under the USAID’s School Construction Project’s construction list. “The work on the school building will hopefully start soon,” Khan said.

He said the entire province is facing a shortage of science teachers. However, he added, “science teachers [in the school] will be appointed soon.”

About 401 schools in Swat were destroyed during the Taliban rule, while the floods destroyed another 101 schools.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th,  2011.