Peshawar school collapse exposes gaps in safety

Residents allege warnings about the building's dilapidated condition were ignored

PESHAWAR:

Tahir Khan managed to pull several children alive from the rubble of a collapsed private school in Peshawar's Dir Colony, but the tragedy left him with an unbearable loss: he could not save his two nephews and a niece, who were among the children caught in the disaster.

More than 30 children died in the heartbreaking incident, while several others sustained injuries. Khan, an eyewitness who helped rescue children from the debris, said the loss of his own family members had left him devastated and demanded severe punishment for those responsible.

"What is the point of running a school like this? It would be better to open a livestock farm instead," he said, criticising the school's management for what he described as negligence. He said the owner should receive the strictest possible punishment for the loss of young lives.

Police have arrested the school owner, and an investigation into the incident is under way.

However, the tragedy has raised serious questions about whether warnings regarding the building's condition were ignored and whether the authorities are adequately monitoring the safety of educational institutions across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

Shahab Khan, a resident of Dir Colony, told The Express Tribune that local residents had repeatedly approached the school principal to warn that the building was in a dilapidated condition and could collapse at any time. However, he alleged, their concerns were not taken seriously.

The incident has brought renewed attention to the condition of school infrastructure across the province, where thousands of classrooms in government schools reportedly require reconstruction or repairs.

According to a report on the condition of public-sector schools in K-P, 36,967 classrooms are in a dilapidated state. The province has 34,784 government schools, of which 19,284 classrooms require reconstruction, while another 17,743 need repairs.

The figures highlight the scale of the infrastructure challenge facing the education sector and raise concerns about the safety of students attending schools in buildings that may require urgent maintenance.

In response to the risks posed by deteriorating school buildings, the Elementary and Secondary Education Department has issued directives to suspend teaching activities in dilapidated schools.

However, concerns extend beyond government institutions to the private education sector, where regulatory oversight remains a challenge.

According to the available report, no records are available for 11,542 private schools in K-P. The figure has raised questions about the registration, documentation and monitoring of private educational institutions operating across the province.

Irshad Jadoon, administrative officer at the Private Schools Regulatory Authority (PSRA), told The Express Tribune that more than 12,000 private schools operate in the province, while the authority has a staff of only 45 people.

He said the limited workforce made it extremely difficult to monitor private schools across the province and ensure compliance with safety and regulatory requirements.

Jadoon called for the establishment of a PSRA sub-office in every district to strengthen oversight and enable authorities to respond more effectively to complaints concerning school buildings and their management. "A more decentralised regulatory system could help improve monitoring and reduce the risk of similar tragedies in the future," noted Jadoon.

For families in Dir Colony, however, the consequences of the school collapse are irreversible. While the investigation into the incident continues, the deaths of the children have intensified calls for accountability, effective regulation and urgent action to ensure that schools remain safe places for learning rather than sites of preventable tragedy.