PTI govt failed to reopen nearly 350 closed schools

Officials say there were some issues with the schools which prevented their reopening

PESHAWAR: Despite claims of prioritising the education sector by enhancing the budget and hiring thousands of teachers, a government report has found that the provincial government struggled to reopen as many as 346 closed schools across the province in the past five years.

Former Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) elementary and secondary education minister Atif Khan had repeatedly claimed during his tenure as the minister that per the promises of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, education was their top priority. Similarly, the provincial government more than doubled its budget for education over five years from Rs63 billion to Rs136 billion.

Moreover, in the early days of the PTI government in K-P, Atif had stated that instead of building new schools, they will focus on reforming and improving facilities in existing schools.



Despite that claim, the K-P government’s Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) Annual School Census Report 2017-18 found that as many as 346 schools in 16 districts of the province have been lying closed for years.

Of these schools, which are either errantly closed or were lying vacant, around 23 were boys schools, 150 were girls schools while 173 schools were co-education schools. These schools, the report stated, have been lying closed for years.

According to the report, Kohistan district had the most schools which were closed with a tally of 132 schools whose doors remain shut. These include seven schools for boys, 49 for girls and 76 co-education schools.

Kohistan was followed by Bannu, where 54 schools, including two for boys, 25 for girls and 27 co-education schools were lying closed.

There were 22 schools which were either closed or non-functional in Lakki Marwat, 20 in Tank, 20 in Hangu, 16 in Abbottabad, 12 in Battagram, eight in Karak, eight in Swat, five in Swabi, four in Bunner, four in Dera Ismail Khan, four in Shangla, two in Charsadda, two in Mansehra, and two in Mardan.

Talking to The Express Tribune, K-P Elementary and Secondary Education Director Farid Khattak said that education and reforms are a continuing process and are not related to the tenure of a government.



He defended the outgoing PTI government, stating that they had done tremendous work for education in the province and had tried their best to bring changes in the sector.

Detailing the work done in the past five years, Khattak said that the government had provided basic facilities in schools and hired more than 50,000 teachers.

About the closed schools, the education official explained that there were various issues which had prevented their reopening including land disputes. He said that they had tried to tackle this issue with the concerned district authorities for reopening of these schools.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2018.