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DIR UPPER: Already having a low literacy rate, majority of the government-run schools in Dir Upper district have been facing shortage of teaching staff for years, with the public representatives quite indifferent to the issue.
According to the data obtained from the education office in the district, there are 793 government primary schools — 204 for girls and 589 for boys — 82 middle and 39 high schools. Among the middle and high schools, 21 middle and six high schools are for girls.
The district with 800,000 population has only two degree colleges, one each for girls and boys. There are seven higher secondary schools, with only two for girls. Out of 33 high schools for boys, only four are headed by principals including Centennial Model High School, Rehankot High School, Gamseer High School and Wari High School.
All other 29 high schools for boys are being administered by ad-hoc principals for the last several years. It is lamentable that some of the high schools are officiated by Certified Teachers (CTs), though others are looked after by Senior English Teachers.
“Our school has been without a principal besides lacking teaching staff,” Ishfaq Khan, a student of the high school in the remote Kair Darra, said. Five higher secondary schools for boys and two for girls have also been functioning without principals since long.
Four schools — Bibyawar middle school for girls, Girls High School Wari, Girls High School Ganori and Girls Primary School Chukiatan — have been torched or bombed by militants. The literacy rate of the district is also formidable at 21 per cent, with that of female at only 6.1 per cent.
More astonishing is the fact that the remote Kohistan area — having seven union councils — has only seven per cent literacy rate with that of female at awful 0.6 per cent. The reasons are historic, as education had been banned in the princely state of Dir. However, after that no serious steps were taken to provide people with the opportunity to get education and become good citizens.
The current situation in schools with regard to teaching staff speaks volume for the interest of the public representatives. “Building of schools means there would be teaching staff to impart education to students as empty building would serve no purpose. It is unfortunate that most of government-run schools in our district are functioning without heads and teachers,” Hasham Hussain, nazim union council Ganori, said. The students and local people demanded of the government to take measures for filling the vacant posts immediately.
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