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Tent school students face harsh winter
MANSEHRA, Dec 14, 2007: Hundreds of schools are operating under tents in severe
cold in areas of the NWFP hit by the 2005 earthquake. Snowfall has begun on the
mountains in the affected districts of Mansehra, Battagram, Kohistan and
Shangla.
The young students have to take classes in hazardous conditions
as the tents don't save them from the severe cold. When the temperature rose in
summer, the classes were held outside the tents in the shadow of
trees.
The pace of the reconstruction process of the affected
infrastructure of health and education is slow and it might take five to six
years to complete.
The principal of the Government Primary School, Zafar
Ground, alleged that the government was not taking interest in reconstructing
the schools and the students and teachers were suffering as a result.
He
said the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority and the
provincial education department had not begun reconstruction of his school
although two years had passed since the earthquake.
Mr Zafar said many
students had left the school as it was impossible to hold the classes in the
tents in hot and cold weather as well as rains.
According to data of the
Provincial Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority, 1392 primary
schools were destroyed and 956 damaged in the earthquake, 102 middle schools
were destroyed and 151 damaged, 71 high schools were destroyed and 89 damaged,
15 higher secondary schools were destroyed and 15 damaged, 13 colleges were
destroyed and seven damaged and seven technical and vocational institutes
destroyed and two damaged in five districts of the NWFP.
About 90 per
cent of the schools and colleges have not yet been reconstructed or shifted to
other buildings.
"If Erra wants to speed up reconstruction of the damaged
infrastructure, it should bring major changes in its laws and policies for
national and international NGOs as the authority cannot carry out the gigantic
task alone," sources in the district education department contended. Dawn
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| Education News | | Updated: 23 May, 2012 |
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