Quake-hit school awaits rebuilding for 17 years

MANSEHRA: A primary school in Balgrain Kanshian village couldn't be reconstructed even 17 years after the devastating earthquake that hit the region in 2005, a group of locals said on Wednesday.

“We had approached the local lawmakers and high-ups in the education department seeking the reconstruction of Government Primary School Balgrain Kanshian, but to no avail. The schoolchildren are getting education under the open sky in harsh winter,” Naveed Ahmad Wadi told reporters in Balakot.

A group of locals led by Ahmad Wadi told reporters that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government often expressed its avowed commitment to educational reforms but the schoolchildren in remote parts of Balakot were acquiring education even 17 years after the tragedy.

“The students of such schools have no option but to acquire education in open places in the severe cold,” Ahmad Wadi said. Speaking on the occasion, another local, Tanveer Ahmad, said that the school was having a single room, which couldn’t accommodate even 30 students.

“It is unfortunate that students have been quitting education to escape the harsh winter,” Ahmad added. He said that the government had been spending huge financial resources under various heads and it should reconstruct the schools which had been destroyed in the 2005 devastating earthquake.

“The Supreme Court of Pakistan had ordered the KP government to reconstruct all those schools, which were destroyed in the 2005 earthquake but such schools in remote parts of the Balakot are yet to be included in the reconstruction strategy,” he added.