Abandoned institutes: Without teachers, 99% children out of schools in a village in Swat

Students either stay home or make daily long journeys to schools in neighbouring, but far-off, areas.

SWAT: Every day for the past seven years, children in Boyun village have been made to walk for several hours to go to school. This is because the two schools in the village lack the very basic component – teachers; and children have no option but to either stay home or to go to schools in neighbouring, but far-off, areas.

Locals said that Government Girls’ Primary School and Government Boys Middle School at Boyun village of Kalam have been dysfunctional since 2005.

Hazrat Mohammad, a social activist, said that initially in year 2000, the boys’ middle school ran well, but then the teachers started skipping work. He said that teachers’ continued getting lax in the following years and by 2005 “they just stopped coming”. The girls’ school, he said, had it worse; “Not a single student or teacher has come to the school since it was constructed in 2005.”

Muhammad said that because of absence of teachers, majority of the children in the village remain out of schools, and estimated that only 1% opt for making long journeys to schools in neighbouring areas of the valley. He said that children who go to schools in central Kalam valley have to walk for over four hours to make the journey.

He said that the villagers have recorded their protests over the issue numerous times but their demands remain unfulfilled. “We even brought the issue to the attention of our Member of Provincial Assembly, who promised to make the schools function, but those have proved to be mere verbal guarantees,” he added.

“We are really concerned for our young generation and want them to get education, but the government seems least interested in the education sector,” said Muhuammad, who is the only educated person in the village that has a population of nearly 5,000.

Residents of Boyun live a simple life and rely mainly on agriculture for sustenance. Women and children help their male elders in the fields, ploughing, planting and harvesting different crops. But the urge to seek education is not lost on them, and many including elders and even youngsters yearn for it.

When asked why he chooses to work and not go to school, 15-year-old Saifullah took a break from plucking potatoes from his father’s farm and replied, “I work with my father in the fields on a tight schedule and we often have to go to Balochistan to work in coal mines just so we can earn a living; I cannot afford to walk hours every day to go to school.”

Executive District Officer Education Sultan Mahmood said the education department has received several complaints from villagers in Boyun about absence of teachers in the two schools. He said that an inquiry in this regard is already underway and assured that strict action will be taken against the teachers if they were found to be at fault. He said that the education department has also sanctioned a Senior English Teacher post for the boy’s middle school in Boyun village.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2012.