- The KP government promises action in the next budget.
- Peshawar schools show severe infrastructure gaps.
- EDUCATIONAL EMERGENCY planned in the worst districts of coup.
Thousands of children studying in more than 10,000 government schools in 28 established districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa continue to be deprived of essential facilities such as boundary walls, electricity, bathrooms and clean drinking water, according to a report by the provincial education department.
The data reveal important infrastructure deficiencies in the public education sector of the province. More than 5,000 schools have no electricity, more than 2,000 have no provision for clean drinking water, and a similar number lacks adequate bathroom and boundary walls.
The report establishes that 2,211 primary schools have no electricity, with the highest numbers registered in Mansehra (344) and Alto Kohistan (252). In Alto Kohistan, 208 schools without drinking water, and 1,253 primary schools lack bath facilities.
Of the 160 intermediate schools in the province, 136 have no limit walls, 71 lack clean drinking water and 57 have no bathrooms. In the provincial capital Peshawar, 21 schools do not have electricity, 15 lack clean drinking water, 17 do not have bathrooms and have no limit walls.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s information advisor, Muhammad Ali Saif, said the provincial government was making efforts to address the lack of basic comfort in government schools. He pointed out that education remained a priority, and that Prime Minister Ali Amin Gandapur had noticed the issue and issued directives accordingly.
He added that more resources would be assigned in the next budget to ensure that no government school remained without bathrooms and drinking water facilities.
Saif also mentioned that the districts with more than 50% of children outside the school would see a declared educational emergency. In areas with an urgent need for school facilities, the government intended to establish schools in rented buildings to close the gap.
These efforts are found in the context of alarming figures recently launched by the Department of Provincial Education, which show that 37% of children in KP remain outside the school.
The previous report paints a worrying image, revealing that 4.92 million boys and girls throughout the province are currently deprived of formal education.
The problem is more acute in Kolai-Palas Kohistan, where 80,333 children are out of school. The neighboring districts of lower and upper Kohistan also record alarmingly high rates, with 79% of children not registered in any educational institution.
On the contrary, Alto Chitral emerges as the best district in the province, with only 10% of children outside school.
The provincial capital, Peshawar, has more than 500,000 boys outside the school, including 319,000 girls, underlining a large gender gap in access to education.
