A state of disrepair: Nine years after 2005 earthquake, Nathiagali high school still a mess

As winter sets in, students still forced to study in the great outdoors.

ABBOTABAD:

Winter is about to set in and snow will soon blanket the entire valley of Galiyat. However, in the absence of school buildings, hundreds of students at government institutes will again be forced to study without adequate shelters or just under the cold sky.

Government High School (GHS) for Boys, Nathiagali is among several of the educational institutions yet to be reconstructed even nine years after the catastrophic earthquake of 2005.

Over the years

GHS Nathiagali was constructed during the British era with the status of a middle school. However it was made a high school during Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) first government in the early seventies. The facility was renovated and more rooms were built in order to accommodate a larger number of students from the hilly areas of Galiyat.

Recent years haven’t been particularly good for the school. The 2005 earthquake levelled three rooms and the veranda, while five rooms and a science laboratory were annexed by the higher education department for the newly-built Government Degree College for Boys in 2006.

The damaged rooms were forgotten for good and even after nine long years, almost half of the students sit in the veranda or under the open sky for their lessons.

Dearth of space

The school has 350 students with two sections for each grade starting from sixth to tenth. As it has only eight rooms left to accommodate all the grades, for the last nine years the administration has been arranging the second section of three grades—sixth, seventh and eighth—in the veranda.

Since the veranda is open on three sides, students suffer at the hands of the area’s climate and often fall ill, running high temperatures with the flu.

A teacher at the school said Government Degree College for Boys was actually constructed within the vicinity of GHS Nathiagali but the Directorate of Colleges took charge of rooms that were actually property of the GHS.

He added the school is in need of at least five rooms to accommodate the present strength of students.

Promises that never were

According to the GHS Nathiagali’s administration, Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) had planned to construct eight new rooms for the school and former ERRA chief Salim Altaf had vowed to put the plan to practice very soon.

But authorities failed to honour their word, said Sardar Hukum Dad, a teacher at GHS Nathiagali.

Sardar Hukum Dad added apart from the long-standing accommodation problem, the school has not been able to provide laboratory facilities which are mandatory for science students. “We have the necessary equipment but there is no room to install it. The school also lacks a library.” He added books are stacked in a store room so students and faculty hardly benefit from them.

Another decrepit school

Government High School for Boys in Bagan village, which is situated 8kms from Nathiagali, is also in a dilapidated condition. As a result, the education department shifted it to a private house consisting of four rooms only.

Sher Dil Khan, a resident of Bagan, said the school has over 300 children enrolled and most of them are forced to study in tents erected outside the house.

Sardar Khalid Khan, a social activist said 70% of the schools and government infrastructure damaged by the earthquake have not been reconstructed in the last nine years. This, Sardar Khalid Khan said, is in spite of the fact that funds worth billions were received from foreign donors for rehabilitation. He demanded NAB investigate the matter and bring the culprits to justice.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA from Nathiagali, Sardar Muhammad Idrees who is also serving as the District Development Advisory Committee chairman could not be reached for an answer despite repeated attempts.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2014.