Parents reluctant to send girls back to 'reopened' Swat schools citing security fears

Peshawar, Aug. 1 (ANI): The government of Pakistan's NWFP province has announced the opening of schools from Saturday, but most parents are hesitant about sending their daughters to the tent schools without proper security arrangements.

Recently, the Swat Taliban had destroyed 162 girls' schools calling them anti-Islamic.

Parents have urged the education department to hire buildings for girls' schools and appoint security guards to avert any militant attack, The Dawn reports.

Officials are expecting a low attendance in the initial days.

Even school-teachers are not confident about the security situation in Swat Valley, from where militants are yet to be cleared.

A school headmaster said his family was in Nowshera and he would wait for the situation to further improve before shifting them back to Swat.

The teachers, he said, had to follow government policies, and were supposed to be present in their respective schools irrespective of the security situation.

According to a source in the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, 5,000 Swat students had migrated to study in other cities.

Executive District Officer (planning and development) Fazal Ahad, who is also focal person for arrangements on emergency basis, told Dawn that preparations for opening the schools on Saturday had been finalised.

He said teachers would not be allowed leaves, adding they were bound to complete the course of the academic session.

Ahad added that the education department had demanded 1,700 tents as a temporary arrangement for schools. (ANI)