Desperate times: As mercury drops, nowhere left to study

Makeshift schools in jeopardy, exposing students to the biting cold.

BALAKOT:

As snowfall blankets Balakot and surrounding hills, thousands of children studying in makeshift schools are exposed to the harsh weather. This is because the government has yet to reconstruct most educational institutions in the region. In the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake, around 90 per cent of the community’s infrastructure was dilapidated, which the government promised to reconstruct with better facilities within two to three years. However, despite receiving billions in aid from foreign donors, no palpable progress has been made.

Of the 1,200 schools in the area, only 400 have been completed so far. Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority of students are compelled to brave the vagaries of weather as teachers have no option but to continue classes out in the open for the last six years.

Locals in Balakot are unimpressed by the pace of rehabilitation work done by Earthquake Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Authority (Erra). “About 60 per cent of the destroyed schools and health facilities are yet to be reconstructed,” said Sardar Khurshid, a teacher, adding that students are still studying in the tents which were donated back in 2005. Some schools were given 10 by 12 foot shelters, which is insufficient to accommodate all the classes. Furthermore, leaky tents often leave teachers with no option but to send children home.

Jamal Shah, another primary school teacher said, “When it snows, which is frequent, teachers are forced to dismiss classes,” said Shafqat, a schoolteacher in a remote village of Bajmohari.

Former Balakot MPA Mazar Ali Qasim criticised Erra and the Provincial Earthquake Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Authority for their unsatisfactory performance in rehabilitation. He said that both the organisations had failed to fulfil their promises, which had decelerated reconstruction process. Shah said that 50,000 people from the red zone were forced to live in prefabricated houses, which they have not acclimatised to, while compensation for over 1,500 affected villagers is still pending.

Education Assistant District Officer Balakot Shamasur Rehman said there were 175 government primary schools for boys and 55 primary schools for girls where about 19,000 children are studying.

Since children get summer vacations in Balakot, he said, the education department was trying to relocate all such schools in hilly areas with frequent snowfall to private buildings with the help of Parents Teachers Councils. “There is no other option because the annual exams are due in a month and a half,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd,  2012.