Skin deep: Primary school in Hayatabad belies locale’s opulent face

Headmaster used residence as classroom for four years, govt says school will be constructed in a year.

PESHAWAR:

To get a glimpse of the city’s grave ‘education emergency’– a catchphrase coined by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government – there is no need to turn to underserved neighbourhoods.

Government Primary School No III is located in Hayatabad Phase-IV, which is an area where the crème de la crème reside. Surrounded by tall buildings and situated in the city’s most posh area, this school has no boundary walls, no roof, no blackboards, no chairs, not a single water cooler; the list goes on.

The dismal state of facilities, however, does not stop the 250 students and their three teachers from coming here every day in the name of basic education.



Parents are often faced to choose between securing their child’s future and looking after their health, as the conditions at the school are making kids fall ill.

“Due to the heat, one of my daughters fell ill twice last week,” said Mirza Khan, the father of three students. “I am torn between sending my kids to school and keeping them away,” he added. Education secures the future of his children, but he worries about their recurring health problems.

Finding alternate schools is also not an option, as Mirza earns a daily wage and simply cannot afford it. He wants the government to construct a proper school building and provide all necessary facilities.

Students sit under the open sky in temperatures that can rise higher than 40 degrees Celsius in the scorching summer, and fall below 10 degree Celsius in the winter months.

Nazifa, a first-grader, said she wished there was clean drinking water and a building to protect them. “In the winter, we feel extremely cold. We sit on the ground and this leads to ailments like fever and coughing,” she said. “In the sizzling summer heat, we continuously sweat and it’s hard to focus on our lessons while sitting in the mud,” she added.

Iqra, a third-grade student, said there is mud and dust everywhere. “The dust in the air caused me to fall ill twice last month,” she said while coughing.

Akhtar Shah, a teacher at the school, said the father of a kindergarten student recently had to rush his daughter to Hayatabad Medical Complex early morning, as she was having trouble breathing.

“We get scared sitting outside,” said Umer Khitab. The fourth-grader recalled times when insects crawled on the children from the ground and scared everyone.

To make matters worse, students complained about a neighbouring hut, where addicts smoke hashish, causing the children to inhale passive smoke. The blaring music from the hut and traffic nearby provide additional distractions. Heaps of garbage are commonplace at the school’s open grounds. Children said people from nearby houses dispose of their trash here, as there is no other place for garbage in the vicinity.

Desperate measures

Mubarak Hussain, the school’s headmaster, said the facility was sanctioned by the government in 1998 but due to lack of funds the school has remained in its current state.

Taking matters into his own hands, Hussain said he decided to make his guestroom a temporary classroom in 2008. “In October 2008, I decided to shift the school to my rented house in Phase-IV, where I taught classes in my guestroom. I ran the school like this for four years,” he said.

The headmaster claimed he purchased items like stationary, chairs, tables, and a water cooler with his own salary.

“It was my mission to keep the school going at any cost,” Hussain said. But, his own family grew over the years and eventually there was no room to spare for the school children.

That is how the non-functional Government Primary School No III once again became barely functional.

Hussain said they moved back to the eight-canal plot a few months ago and 250 students have been receiving their basic education while sitting in the dirt, under the open sky.

Government’s promise

Teachers, students and parents demanded the provincial government make good on its promise for education reforms. Disappointed in their choice to vote for PTI last year, they felt the party’s promise for change in the shape of a ‘New Pakistan’ has yet to be fulfilled.

Provincial Director Education Rafiq Khattak said the government has identified 2,000 out of a total of 28,000 schools that lack basic facilities. “Funds have been allocated for the construction of six rooms in GPS No III, Hayatabad and its construction will take a year,” Khattak added. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2014.