KP's schools merger policy raises eyebrows
The shutting down and merging of over a thousand schools by the authorities citing low attendance, has left young students worried. Photo: Dunya News
(Dunya News) – With an educational emergency being declared across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, its adverse effects have started to surface.
The shutting down and merging of over a thousand schools by the authorities citing low attendance, has left young students worried.
According to KP’s Department of Education, one of two schools located within two kilometers of each other has been shut down and merged. The authorities claim that the number of students in the schools that were shut down was less than 40.
Atif Khan, the Education Minister of KP, says that the schools were established for ‘political reasons’. Speaking to Dunya News, Khan said that the government has only merged the schools that were on a short distance from another one.
The shutting down and merging of over a thousand schools by the authorities citing low attendance, has left young students worried. Photo: AFP
“If there is no other school nearby, the institute will not be closed even if there are only ten students studying there,” he said.
Among the schools with low attendance were 45 from Peshawar, 100 in Mansehra, 65 from Abbottabad, 60 in Bannu, 90 in Battagram, 87 in Kohistan, 58 in Charsaddah, 55 in Chitral, 60 in Mardan, Haripur and Laki Marwat each, 55 from Sawabi, 12 in D. I. Khan, 15 in Malakand, 10 in Swat whereas 7, 4 and 10 in Torghar, Nawshehra and Taank, respectively.
While the members of opposition seem to be silent over the government’s decision, the shutting down of schools may have endangered the future of hundreds of students.
For more on this, watch a report by Dunya News below.
