KHAR: A community school in Salarzai tehsil of Bajaur tribal district has been functioning without building since 2007 when the classes started, forcing students to sit in the open.

Locals told reporters on Saturday that the community school in remote Tandoka area had also no furniture, as a result, the students had to sit on stones.

They said the school was the lone government educational facility in the region.

The school has failed to achieve its goal for which it was established on the requests of elders,” Malik Khan Bahadar, an elder, deplored.

The residents claimed the officials of education department and local administration had assured to provide basic facilities to the school, but to no avail.

We were promised by the officials to provide building and other facilities for the school, but nothing has been done yet, Malik Tajbar Khan, another elder, regretted.

The locals complained there was only one teacher for more than 400 students against the sanctioned posts of three.

They said they had brought the issue into the notice of education department, but to no avail.

They said a number of students had moved to other schools owing to absence of facilities.

The schoolteacher wishing to be not named said he had been teaching since the school was made functional in 2007, but he had never been paid salary on time.

He said his salary had now been stopped for last 10 months.

The residents asked the governor and chief minister to take notice and order provision of required facilities to the school.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2018