Still not enough: ‘Over 9,000 schools have lavatories now’

As per education dept report, the facilities were constructed in three years

PESHAWAR: The K-P government claimed to have set up lavatories in over 9,000 schools across the province over the last three years. However, it seems there is still a long way to go as teachers said a large number of institutes were still without such conveniences.

According to a report of the K-P Elementary and Secondary Education Department, lavatories have been constructed in 9,303 schools at a cost of Rs1.7 billion over the last three years.

The report also shows that in June 2013, around 16,300 schools either did not have toilets or needed more. However, the good news is that by June 2016, the number of schools without lavatories was reduced to around 7,000.

The other side

However, according to a June 2016 report of the Independent Monitoring Unit, 21% of the schools in Abbottabad have no toilets, while 18% in Upper Dir, 23% in Haripur, 85% in Kohistan, 22% in Mansehra, 31% in Battagram, 5% in Buner, 21% Chitral, 21% in Shangla, 6% in Lower Dir, 4% Malakand, 16% Swabi and 10% schools in Swat also lacked the facility.

All Primary Teachers Association Peshawar President Azizullah Khan told The Express Tribune that they have not seen any newly-constructed toilets in the schools of the district.

He added that the number of girls’ and boys’ primary schools is around 1,200 in Peshawar, but there has not been a single toilet constructed in them so far. In some schools, he added, there are just one or two toilets for hundreds of students and some of these facilities were lying dysfunctional.

Azizullah said a majority of schools in Peshawar district needed toilets. He demanded that the government focus on schools of the provincial capital.

When asked, a teacher in Swabi, Riaz Ali Shah, was unaware of the issue. However, he stressed the government should be serious about providing the missing facilities in schools. He said the quality of education would not improve until the government fulfills basic needs of all the schools.

However, K-P Elementary and Secondary Education Chief Planning Officer Idrees Azam said the government allocated an equal amount for missing basic facilities in all the schools across the province. He added it was not possible to fulfil the needs of all the schools in one go as the task would take time to complete.  He reiterated new toilets had been set up in schools of every district and construction is under way.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2016.