SHANGLA: A girls primary school in a mountainous area of Shangla has over 300 students, but the two female teachers have hired a local man on a paltry salary just to mark the attendance of students in the daily register and then ask them to go home.

Moreover, the building of the government girls primary school, Ranzra, in Chakesar tehsil is on the verge of collapse as no renovation has been done to it after its construction in 1984, posing threat to lives of students.

The irony is that the school building is being used by a local influential man as madressah (religious seminary) in the afternoon.

Two female teachers have hired a local for the purpose

The local people have lodged their protest to the education authorities time and again, but in vain.

Qari Attar Rehman, a local, said, “We have brought the issue into the notice of education department officials to ensure presence of female teachers in the school and reconstruction of the building, but to no avail.” He said the teachers did not come to school because it was situated in a far flung mountainous area, adding some local influential people have established a seminary in the school, where children come in large numbers.

Another resident Ziaur Rehman said they had made many videos and shared them on social media to highlight the issue, but no action was taken. He said some officials visited the school a month ago, but they did nothing practical to secure future of students.

“We love to get education but the government is not serious in providing us proper facilities,” said student Taj Mena. Student Naveedul Haq said a male teacher only marked their names daily and then asked them to go home.

Shamsul Haq, a social activist, told Dawn the teachers were getting salaries regularly but didn’t bother to visit the school. He demanded of the government to build a road to the area as it was a hilly terrain.

This correspondent repeatedly attempted to make contact with the district education officer (female) to have her opinion on the matter, but she did not respond.

However, another education official, Saidul Hussain, said main reason for teachers not coming to school was its location.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2017