Help wanted: Mangar Kot children trapped in time

The village lacks schools, roads and even a dispensary.

SWAT: Located at a distance of 30 kilometres from Mingora, Mangar Kot, a village in Union Council Kishora comprising 600 houses, is deprived of every basic facility of life. It exists in the 21st century but lives in a world from centuries past.

About 4,200 people live in the village, but only 12 of them have passed their matriculation, for a literacy rate of 0.28 per cent.

Mohammad Rasool, a teacher at the only boys’ primary school in the village, told The Express Tribune, “We don’t have any basic facilities of life here. The dirt road on which you came was made by us; our children are deprived of middle and high school education, while the girls’ school was destroyed by the Taliban in 2008. Here in this primary school we are two teachers for 300 students.”

Regarding the visit of a member of the provincial assembly from this area, Rasool said, “By the grace of God, he has fled the country in fear of the Taliban. He is now living a luxurious life in the UK -- he does not bother with our troubles.”

The situation becomes all the more painful for this teacher when he finds his students eager to learn. “Contrary to the previous generation the new one wants to get educated and learn to use the computer. The government should upgrade this primary school to middle or high, while girls’ schools must be reconstructed on an emergency basis.”

There is not a single person in Mangar Kot who has gotten a bachelor’s or master’s degree.

Gul Muhammad, one of the 12 people who have successfully passed their matriculation, regrets not being able to continue his education. “I studied up to 10th grade and passed my Secondary school certificate but due to financial problems, I could not study more,” he said.

Regarding the difficulties in getting an education, Gul said, “I used to walk for four hours to reach the high school in Chamtalie area of Tehsil Khwaza Kehal, across the hill. I think the government is either neglecting us deliberately or does not know of
our presence.”

The present government has initiated different schemes to combat poverty across the country under the Benazir Incomes Support Programme, but the people of Mangar Kot have been left in the cold.

“Majority of the people work in the coal mines in Hyderabad, while some are farmers,” said Wazir Mohammad, an old resident of the area, adding, “The majority of women with pregnancy-related complications, die or bear the child on the way because we have to take our patients to hospitals in Mingora. We don’t even have
a dispensary.”

About Talibanization in the area he said, “There was no local Talib here, rather, we were afraid of them. When some of them came to blow up the girls’ school, all of us hid away.”

A visit to the only school in the village revealed a computer in one of the classrooms. A small group of students, huddled around the computer, told The Express Tribune, “Our teacher has arranged this for us, we love computers  and want to learn more, but unfortunately, after passing class five, we have to travel for more than two hours to attend a school. Here, we don’t have desks and benches to sit on.” We sit on the ground in the classrooms.”

But what they were most worried about was the lack of a computer lab. A student added, “We request the government to build a high school for us, which must have a computer lab.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2010.