Orakzai agency pitch tents to restart education

Orakzai authorities pitch tents to restart education

Girls attend class in a makeshift tent school in lower Orakzai Agency. In the last year militants destroyed 68 boys’ and girls’ schools in the area, including Orakzai’s only girls’ college. [M. Ibrahim]

ORAKZAI AGENCY – Raheel, 9, and his 7-year-old sister Sabavon, of the Ferozkhel area in lower Orakzai Agency, were overjoyed when the government erected a makeshift tent school in their village a few months ago to replace a school building destroyed by a militant bomb last year.

In the past year 68 boys’ and girls’ schools, including Orakzai’s only degree college for women, have been destroyed by militants. To minimize the disruption of children’s education, government authorities have erected tent schools.

Authorities have provided about 172 large tents so that boys’ and girls’ classes can take place regularly. They have also contributed free books and paper, Raheel and Sabavon said. Authorities have provided about 172 large tents so that boys’ and girls’ classes can take place regularly. They have also contributed free books and paper, Raheel and Sabavon said.

The reconstruction of destroyed schools will require time and money, said Political Agent of Orakzai Agency Riaz Mehsud.

“We have limited resources at hand, and that’s why we opted for establishing tent schools,” Mehsud told Central Asia Online.

The tents are specially designed for schools and workers erected them at a number of rehabilitated localities with the assistance of foreign aid agencies.

“Simultaneously, we have also started repairing schools with minor damage,” he said.

Orakzai suffered at hands of militants

About 20,000 families from the southern and central regions of Orakzai fled to camps in the Hangu and Kohat districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last year because of a surge in militancy in their home regions. That adversely affected the studies of thousands of children.

Orakzai Agency is considered the most backward area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and has the lowest literacy rate among the tribal regions. The overall literacy rate in FATA is 17%, but is only 7% in Orakzai Agency.

Authorities have provided about 172 large tents so that boys’ and girls’ classes can take place regularly. They have also contributed free books and paper, Raheel and Sabavon said.

Troops have cleared the lower and central Orakzai regions of militants and expect soon to overcome resistance in the upper parts of Orakzai, thus paving the way for establishing more schools, Army officials commanding the Orakzai military operation said.

More than 9,000 students from Uthmankhel, Ferozkhel, Goyeen, Meshtee Mela and Meshtee bazaar have started studying in the makeshift schools, Mehsud said.

More than 140,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have already returned to their homes in Orakzai, and the repatriation process should be completed soon, he added.

Mehsud dispelled the impression that parents in Orakzai or elsewhere in FATA were reluctant to send their daughters to schools for fear of insecurity.

“We have made adequate security arrangements to ensure the safety of both the girl students and their female teachers,” Mehsud said.

People welcome tent schools

Tribal elder Habib Orakzai welcomed the government initiative to supply tent schools, saying education is a basic right of every child and that the initiative shows the government’s resolve to make education accessible to tribal children.

“A low literacy rate is one of the main reasons of our backwardness,” Habib said. “The militancy has adversely affected the entire fabric of tribal society.”

He expressed hope that as destroyed schools in Orakzai and other tribal areas are rebuilt, more quality educational institutions would be established throughout FATA.

Said Jameel, a parent in the Ferozkhel area, said that though his children had access to schooling facilities in an IDP camp in Hangu, they always wanted to return home and resume their education there.
“The local political administration has made excellent arrangements in the tent schools, and our children are now fully concentrating on their studies,” he said.

The Orakzai administration also has set up free medical camps, including some for women, repaired damaged communications lines, and will provide six months of food to every rehabilitated family, Mehsud said.

Most of the IDPs were eager to return home as soon as possible, as most private houses had survived the militancy, he said.

“The government … is doing its utmost to repair the damaged infrastructure, thus enabling the return of normal life as soon as possible,” he said.