LANDI KOTAL: The dilapidated condition of government schools continues to be exposed in Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sohail Afridi’s native district, Khyber, where a government primary school in the Warmando Mela area is in a dilapidated state, putting the lives of around 200 students at risk.
According to local sources, the building of Warmando Mela Boys Primary School was constructed in 1975, and after almost half a century, the three-room structure has become extremely decrepit, with cracked walls and leaking roofs, and could collapse at any time.
The school has only three rooms for 200 students and lacks basic facilities, including a boundary wall, clean drinking water, washrooms, and furniture, forcing children to study under the open sky during extreme heat, cold, and rain.
Most alarming is that only two teachers are appointed for 200 students who are responsible for teaching all seven classes from Kachi to 5th, leaving parents in constant fear while sending their children to school.
Local elders have demanded that the dilapidated building be immediately declared dangerous and a new building be constructed on an emergency basis, along with additional classrooms, basic facilities and appointment of more teachers according to the student-teacher ratio.
They said providing a safe educational environment to children is the constitutional responsibility of the government, but despite tall claims of an educational emergency, schools in the merged tribal districts are still deprived of basic facilities.
They have appealed to Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, the education minister, and the deputy commissioner of Khyber to take urgent notice, questioning whether this is the condition of a school in the chief minister’s own district; what will be the condition of other schools in remote areas.
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