K-P govt claims major improvement in schools, IMU disagrees

The report says asserts that 6 per cent of school in the province lack sanitation

PESHAWAR: Around six per cent of schools in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) have no sanitation facilities, according to the province's Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU).

This statistic shows that despite the K-P Elementry and Secondary Education Department (ESED) claim to have built 16,000 toilets in primary schools across the province under the district conditional grant programme, there are still miles to go before the provision of a basic human right — access to sanitation — becomes universal.

According to documents given to The Express Tribune by the ESED, the programme started in 2011 to provide basic facilities like boundary walls, sanitation, water, electricity, classrooms and solar panels in schools.

The package also aimed to encourage gender equality and community participation in the education sector by directing parent-teacher councils (PTC) to carry out civil works instead of Communication Works Department (CWD).



After the allocation of funds, the department declares to have provided facilities worth Rs20 billion, including building 12,000 additional classrooms, 13,638 boundary walls, providing 9,856 schools with electricity and 12,000 schools with water.

The claims of improvement are contradicted by the IMU’s February 2017 report, which says six per cent of school in the province lack sanitation facilities for student and staff.

The report says that 58 per cent of schools in Kohistan District, 32 per cent in Torghar, 27 per cent in Manshera, and 25 per cent in Shangala remain without sanitation.



Meanwhile, the programme’s media adviser, Zunash Abbasi, insisted while talking to The Express Tribune that the K-P government has provided an “innovative approach” to help “improve the efficiency” of PTCs.

Abbasi adds that the ESED provides financial assistance to PTCs “to improve the learning environment in schools”.

“It is due to the quality infrastructure in K-P public schools that children are migrating from private schools to public schools, because their parents can see the best learning environment, and quality infrastructure...their children will now get in public schools of K-P,” she asserts.