Major discrepancies: Education dept claims 159 girls schools in K-P are shut

Almost two months earlier, the dept quoted the figure to be 295.

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly was informed on Thursday that 159 primary and middle schools for girls were lying closed across the province.

The issue was raised during the question hour at the start of the session, when to a query made by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) lawmaker from Hangu, Mufti Syed Janan, the primary and secondary education department shared information about the closure of these schools.

The written reply from the department stated that presently there are no non-functioning girls primary, middle or high schools in Chitral, Buner, Bannu, Malakand, Torghar, Karak, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Haripur, Kohat, Abbottabad, Lakki Marwat and Nowshera. However, it also provided a list of 12 middle and 147 primary schools for girls that are shut across the remaining 12 districts of K-P.

The break-up of this list shows that 12 primary and a middle school were non-functional in Peshawar due to security threats. Fifteen primary schools in Hangu, 15 in DI Khan, 14 in Charsadda, three in Swabi, two in Tank and two in Shangla have been closed due to a lack of female teachers. Twenty-seven primary and a middle school in Battagram, and 17 primary and seven middle schools in Kohistan were also closed due to a lack of teachers.

Thirty-nine primary and two middle schools are closed in Swat; some of them were damaged in floods, while others were shut due to security threats.

A middle school in Mansehra was destroyed in an earthquake, while a primary school in Mardan was occupied by the owner of the land on which it was constructed.

However, Mufti Syed Janan contested these figures and presented before the house another set of statistics from the education department that was submitted before the house on February 21. The department had informed the house in response to a question by Arbab Akbar Hayat, that there were 385 closed schools across the province, of which 295 were girls schools. Janan said the previous figures state that 58 girls schools were closed in Bannu and 39 schools were closed in Torghar, whereas they are now claiming that no girls school in the districts is non-functional. Mufti accused the department of deception and said either the department was misrepresenting the facts then, or they are doing so now.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmaker Aurangzeb Nalotha also informed the house that there are about eight girls schools closed in his constituency of Abbottabad, while the department was claiming no school was non-functional in the district.

The K-P Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Atif Khan assured the house that the government will soon appoint about 8,090 teachers across the province to fill the shortage of 14,000. He added that the remaining 6,000 vacancies will also be filled on the basis of promotions.

Speaking about the statistics presented by the education department, Atif claimed they may have changed due to one factor or another and it is not necessary that the department was misinforming the house. The matter was then referred to the relevant committee.

However, the figures presented by the department could very well be a gross under-statement of the on-ground situation. An official of the education department in Kohistan, requesting anonymity, claimed that not a single girls’ school in the district was fully functional.

The session was in progress till the filing of this report.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2014.