Private schools in Abbottabad attract more students

ABBOTTABAD: Besides its natural beauty and low crime rate, Abbottabad is known for standard educational institutions and some of them are as old as creation of Pakistan.
In the wake of the December 16, 2014 attack on Army Public School in Peshawar, most of the private and semi-government school and colleges in Abbottabad are faced with huge influx of students and most of them have to get some recommender in order to get admission.
Being a hill station, schools in Abbottabad remain closed for winter vacations from last week of December to first week of March and that is when admissions to new classes open. Usually, private schools place countless advertisements for admission in local and national newspapers. Things are different this time around.
Almost all the good and mediocre type schools face rush of students and are charging handsome amounts as admission fees.
“This is mainly because we are getting applications for admission mostly from, Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan and Swabi districts,” explained an owner-cum-principal of a private school and college. Obviously, school owners with hostel facilities prefer boarders over day-scholars for a reason that school earns more from a boarder than a day-scholar.
Abbottabad has five good educational institutions that are owned and run by the army under the direct supervision of Commandant Pakistan Military Academy and control of 10 Corps Rawalpindi. These include: Army Burnhall Colleges for boys and girls, Army Public School, PMA Kakul Campus, Army Public School, Murree Chowk campus and Frontier Force (FF) School.
The Abbottabad Public School and College is another quality institution. All these schools and colleges have upgraded their security levels and are considered safe.
There are dozens of other average to good educational institutions which lack modern security arrangements but are flooded with new applicants.
Nur Alam Tangi, who hails from Tangi, Charsadda district, told The News that he had moved to Abbottabad to get his two sons and one nephew educated here.