by Misbah Saba Malik
ISLAMABAD, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Usman, a 12-year-old student, has always achieved good grades in his academic career, and his teachers believed that he would be a successful man one day. But in spite of all the hopes, militancy in the area buried his future under the dark garb of despair.
"One day when I went to school at my usual routine the school was no more there, my schoolmates and I tried to rebuild our schools by gathering the broken pieces of bricks but we are too young and too poor to do that," Usman told Xinhua in a grieved tone.
He said that he and his schoolmates want to study but they don' t have enough opportunities, when school building was there they had a hope but now militants have buried their future under the rubbles of destroyed school.
Usman is not the only student who suffered the direct attacks on academic front of Pakistan, official statistics showed that over 500 schools have been destroyed in recent years in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in northwest Pakistan leaving tens of thousands of children without access to education.
Critics believed that after the attempts of sabotaging education system by the militants the authorities responsible for the uplift of education are not making any notable efforts to rebuild the education structure of the effected places.
However, the authorities are of the view that they don't have a large amount of budget allocation for improving the education in the effected areas as their immediate task is to maintain law and order situation in such areas.
Talking to Xinhua, Pakistan's Education Secretary Athar Tahir said that soaring militancy is the main hurdle in government's efforts to advance education, but they are making all possible efforts.
Experts believed that most of the time Taliban militants are behind the activities of destroying schools because they don't want people to get awareness.
Defense analyst Talat Masood said that militants are destroying educational institutions in the areas under their influence because education can prove to be the main hurdle in their extremist activities.
"Militants believe that only educated people could frustrate their nefarious designs of terrorism and influence from their so- called northwestern territory," he said.
In an area like northwest Pakistan, formal western style education is not an easy task partly due to the hold of orthodox religious scholars. The literacy rate of tribal area is 22 percent, which is well below the nationwide rate of 56 percent. A 35.8 percent of men, and only a 7.5 percent of women received education in the area, compared to a nationwide 44 percent of women.
Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) in Peshawar said that Taliban are losing hold from the area due to the successful military operations in the area. Now they are using children and women to carry out their nefarious plans so they don't want them to get educated.
A senior journalist from northwestern Pakistan, Azam Ali, said that destruction of schools by the militants is not the only reason of poor education standard in the area.
"Many qualified teachers do not want to be posted in tribal areas due to the fear of militants, they also prefer to work for schools in big cities which can offer them more security and reward," Ali told Xinhua.
After the deterioration of public education in the area most of the children have to study in religious madrassas (religious schools) where orthodox religious scholars teach them. According to unofficial statistics, madrassas still educate about 1.5 million students every year where militants exploit young minds of the children under the veil of religion.
Educational experts believed that if the government wanted to curb militancy around the country it should allocate special funds for the betterment of education in northwest Pakistan.
Dr. Teenat Malik, a psychology professor in a government-run university, said that education can prove to be the most successful weapon for the elimination of militancy in the country.
"Government should bring this fact into consideration that educated youth of the militant insurgent area is the only ray of hope to stabilize the law and order situation in the country," she said.
Editor: Yang Lina |
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