Schools closed in hundreds for want of teachers

PESHAWAR, Shortage of teachers has closed 367 primary schools in the Frontier province, depriving over 36,700 children of education.

Sources said more than 30 primary schools had been closed in the provincial capital alone. Schools were being closed for the last few years because of non-availability of teachers. That not only put the future of students at stake but also set decay in the school buildings for lack of repairs.

The miseries of students have increased manifold since militants started blowing and torching educational institutions in parts of Frontier province, already short of primary schools. The closure of such a large number of schools owing to non-availability of teachers has alarmingly increased the drop out rate.

“Most of the closed schools are located in the far-off areas. Teachers from these schools have been transferred to cities purely on political grounds,” sources said. They added that teachers serving in cities were getting different allowances.

The Elementary and Secondary Education department had appointed teachers in all the closed schools, which remained functional for many years after their establishment. But almost all of these teachers managed to get themselves transferred to other schools of their choices, mostly in urban areas, leaving 367 schools closed.

The parents couldn’t admit their children to the schools located at a long distance from their respective villages due to security reasons, an educationist, wishing not to be named, said. He linked the growing rate of child labour with the non-availability of teachers and lack of primary schools in the province.

The director Education Sector Reforms Unit, Raja Saad Khan, told Dawn that teachers didn’t to be posted in far-flung areas.The phenomenon had aggravated the situation, he added.

According to him teachers don’t want to perform duty at remote areas owing to security reasons and non-viability of transport. The government was working on various options to ensure availability of teachers in the closed schools across the province, he said. Mr Khan said that additional teachers serving in the schools located in city areas would be transferred to closed schools in rural areas on priority basis.

“We are also recruiting teachers on emergency ground in different districts to overcome the shortage of teachers,” he added.The third option was to authorise the Parent Teacher Council at school levels to appoint teachers in the closed schools on fixed salaries, he said.

The government was also in contact with the NGOs to help it in providing teachers in the far-off areas, he said. He hoped that within one year all the closed schools would be made functional.