A fighting chance: School in Bara reopens after 10 years

Fitted with a library, laboratories, sports ground along with solar panels and CCTV cameras.

PESHAWAR: The Government Higher Secondary School for Boys in Sheikhan, Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency will open its gates after 10 years in the fall of 2014 to welcome back its students.

Pervez Marwat, the newly-appointed principal of the school, said he wrote an application to the education department requesting appointment at this particular institute. He then took charge of the abandoned structure during the ongoing curfew.

“The first thing I had to work towards was security for students,” he said. For this purpose, Marwat installed 16 close-circuit cameras in the building. He then got the building repaired and installed solar panels to provide uninterrupted electricity for the classrooms and science laboratories.

“We are once again enrolling our children in the school,” shared Sheikh Shiraz, an elder of the area. According to the principal, within a month, the number of registered students has reached 560.

Shiraz said the school was closed down in 2004 when security forces launched an operation against banned outfits in Bara tehsil of the agency. Most of the families shifted to Peshawar and enrolled their children in other schools. “Those who could not afford to migrate did not enrol their children anywhere.”

The school has a library, laboratories as well as a sports ground, shared the elder. He said all staff members are striving hard to ensure children of the area receive quality education when they return.

“Because of the security forces and frontier constabulary deployed in the area, both children and their parents feel safe. They know they can gain an education without any hindrance,” said Principal Marwat. “We wrote to the authorities to relax the curfew in the morning and afternoon so students can easily come to school and go back home.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2014.