Govt asked to complete work on school buildings in Tirah

TIRAH: The residents of Maidan area in Tirah valley in Khyber tribal district have asked the government to complete work on the under-construction school buildings to provide educational facilities to the children.

They said the tribal people had vacated their homes during militancy and returned to native areas after restoration of peace in 2014, but no government school could be made functional so far. Some residents claimed that hundreds of students belonging to Maidan went to schools in Kurram and Orakzai districts near the boundary of the Khyber district. Talking to The News, one Ghulam Muhammad Afridi said the militants had destroyed over a 100 government schools in Bara tehsil in Khyber. The construction work on several new schools was launched in Maidan area six years ago but it could not be completed, he added. “The well-off people send children to private schools but the poor cannot afford to do so,” he pointed out, adding thousands of poor children were deprived of education.

Another local, Younas Afridi, said that they had already suffered a lot whereas their houses and shops were set on fire by the militants. He pointed out that they had left behind all belongings that were set on fire by militants. “Now we are facing a host of problems,” he said. He added that the damaged roads and business centres could not be restored in the last six years. The then federal government had provided funds to carry out development projects and to reconstruct the damaged schools and roads but to no avail. “The children are studying in schools under the open sky,” he complained. He alleged that the government had been unable to ensure the construction of new schools and repair of the damaged ones. “A large number of children have quit education owing to the absence of teaching staff at schools,” another elder, Sher Ali Afridi added.

He said the former political administration had announced in 2015 to build 27 new government schools in Tirah as the region was lagged behind in education. The elder said the construction work on a number of schools was launched six years ago but could not be completed. Sher Ali added that the construction work could not be carried out in winter due to snowfall and chilly weather. Another tribal elder, Umar Khan, said that two schools had been completed in his village in Bar Qambarkhel but the Education Department had not yet provided staff and other requirements. They demanded recruitment of local youth in the government schools so that their children could get education at local schools instead of going to other districts.

They asked the government to inspect the buildings of the schools and punish the contractors who failed to complete the projects in time. When contacted, Assistant Education Officer Khyber Wajid Khan Afridi said though some school buildings had been constructed, the owners of the land did not submit relevant documents to the Education Department. He said the schools completed by the Communications and Works (C&W) Department were handed over to the Education Department. The official said they had dispatched many letters to the deputy commissioner Khyber and C&W to speed up work on the schools in Tirah.