Ex-Fata schools

Even after merging into K-P, tribal districts lack investment in infrastructure and social services

The Peshawar High Court has given the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government about two weeks to release funds for the provincial education department to address a plethora of problems at schools in the tribal belt. It is disappointing that even after being merged into K-P, tribal districts are still not seeing the kind of investment in infrastructure and social services they desperately need. Despite the region’s geopolitical significance — and the many security threats associated with lack of education or opportunity in prime TTP recruitment territory — its raw distance from major cities means it is forgotten, sometimes even by its own elected officials.

What else would explain shortages of even the most basic facilities in primary schools? While we understand valid arguments could be made relating to cost or other logistical issues, they all fall flat in hindsight, since the education secretary claims the furniture could be provided in one day to a Khyber district school that is part of the litigation. Given that the schools at the centre of the hearing have been missing facilities for long, it is astounding that no elected officials or bureaucrats in the region knew of the problem, or even worse, did know but did not think it worth their time to intervene.

It is an absolute failure on the part of the federal and provincial governments that almost every district in the country seems to have schools that are operating in dilapidated structures while millions are being spent on upgrading offices and other amenities for the officers in charge. It would be fairly easy to divert those funds to schools and other areas where they are desperately needed, but it would need someone with the ounce of courage required to say that elected officials, senior bureaucrats and other highly-paid government employees should get no perks until every school in the country operates in a building with a roof that isn’t on the verge of collapsing.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2023.

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